


So Not Fair

by WolvesandFae



Series: Fair Arc [1]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Aliens, Angst, Avoiding Issues, Coping, Drama, Evil Secret Government Programs, F/M, Family Fluff, Growing Up Too Fast, Lost Childhood, Making Hard Choices, Misunderstandings, Moving On, No Going Back, Overprotective Nature, Parent-Child Relationship, Platonic Relationships, Stolen Childhood, Trauma, War, civilian, robot war, young parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-23 06:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 29,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11983884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolvesandFae/pseuds/WolvesandFae
Summary: A surprise visit to a cousin turns into a struggle to survive for Jade Rays as she deals with corrupt government programs, well meaning strangers, a galactic war moved to Earth, and the challenge of raising four babies created in the hell where her life changed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

Everything hurt, even places and things she didn’t think could hurt. There was nothing but darkness surrounding her. It closed in on her like someone trying to suffocate her with a really thick blanket. Her hearing was spotty at best; fading in and out giving her just snippets of the hell she found herself in. The tests were positive. Probability of success was close to seventy percent. If she didn’t live they would try again.

Such frightening things.

For a moment, through the haze of pain and drugs, she remembered what her life had been like before.

* * *

Singing loud to the American anthem with the windows rolled down and the music turned up loud, Jade Ray felt all her worries fly away as the road flew under the wheels of her classic 1980 Ford F-250. After spending a few years and a lot of money she had turned the rust bucket she had found into a beauty that looked as if it had come straight out of the factory. Man she loved this truck with its classic red paint job and versatility. With a little love and luck she wouldn’t need to replace this car for a while, which was great seeing as she needed to get through college.

The anthem finished and the country music came back forcing Jade’s mind away from the fear of starting college in the fall. This was her summer and she was going to enjoy it even if it almost killed her! Neatly pulling off the highway and onto the exit ramp the small town Massachusetts girl grinned with excitement. She had been traveling and sightseeing her way across the country for a while now and was looking forward to seeing her cousin Sam Witwicky. They were second cousins, no wait, third…she thought. The family tree was so large on both her grandparents’ sides from both of her parents that it was hard to remember how one was related to another.

Seeing a small diner, Jade pulled into the parking lot and stopped the truck. It had been hours since she had last eaten a full meal or used a bathroom. She jumped out of her precious truck and locked it before walking into the diner. First she went to the bathroom for some sweet relief that she had been ignoring for the last few miles. Then she patiently waited for a seat to open before landing herself a seat at the counter where all the good smells stuck to. Mouth watering she glanced over the regular menu before looking at the specials. They had fish, sandwiches, some sort of ethnic food that she had no clue how to pronounce, and what was said to be a full turkey dinner with all the fixings. No contest, she ordered the turkey dinner with a large glass of milk earning a skeptical look from the waitress who looked only a couple of years younger than her.

Absentmindedly Jade gently swung her Wolverine boot brand covered feet, avoiding hitting the counter or her stool, and pulled out the map she had stashed in a back pocket of her worn light blue jeans. Laying the map on the counter she leaned slightly forward to get a better look, ignoring how her white tank top rode up slightly in the back since her open, light blue plaid vest covered any skin that might show. Jade tucked her messy red hair behind her pierced ears as her bright blue eyes scanned the map. She had about fifty or sixty miles left before she would reach Sam’s house. She hoped Cousin Judy and Cousin Ron didn’t mind that she was coming. She hadn’t actually told anyone she was visiting, thinking it would be fun to surprise her favorite cousins.

Noticing her waitress coming back with her food Jade carefully folded the map and stuffed it back into her back pocket. The girl gave her the meal and huffed away. Jade blinked; alrighty then. She never noticed a pair of boys down the counter who had asked the waitress who “red-head with the pretty blue eyes” was. Without a care she tucked into her meal unknowing of the slight drama she had caused. 

* * *

Feeling better after her rest Jade got back into her truck and drove off. If she was lucky she could get to Sam’s place before eleven. It wasn’t until she was a few back roads away from the diner that she noticed a black SUV was following her. It was keeping a good distance from her, but on the little used back roads she was traveling it was obvious that they were following her. Checking her cell phone she cursed under her breath. Cheap brand of phone meant spotty service as her cell told her she had no service. Seeing a turnoff up ahead Jade took it as if she meant to and switched off the headlights before the SUV could take the corner. She took another turn and prayed that her pursuers didn’t follow.

Taking one more turn she cursed loudly at the dead-end. She glanced in her rearview mirror. She didn’t want to leave her truck, it was her baby, but she really didn’t want whoever was following her to get her. Decision made, the frightened eighteen year old grabbed her phone, wallet, and the keys to the truck before bolting into the surrounding trees. Finding a nice big one to hide behind she crouched down and tried her phone again. Still no service. If she lived through this she was getting a better phone no matter the costs.

There were no headlights, from what she could see with her eyes now adjusted to the darkness. She had run into the woods far enough so she could just barely see her truck and then picked her way a carefully to a less obvious spot hoping that she didn’t leave a noticeable trail. Then she heard the sound of gravel being crunched by slow moving wheels just barely over the noises of the night. Still no headlights so that meant they had thought the same as her. She heard a door open and waited.

“Girl’s gone! Took her phone, wallet, and keys though and the engine is still hot! She can’t have gotten far!” a voice shouted to the SUV.

“If so then shut up and find her!” another voice called back.

Fear jolted through her making it hard not to start running blindly. That would make too much noise. With a prayer the red-head slowly moved farther away from the road and her truck. She needed to find a house with a phone so she could call the police. Then she could ask for an escort back to her truck in the morning. Mind made up she focused on shifting through the dark woods.

Out of nowhere a cloth with a strange smell shot towards her with a hand attached to it and covered her mouth and nose. Holding her breath Jade swung out with an elbow and nailed someone in the ribs. With a grunt their already weak hold weakened further and Jade ran. She didn’t care about noise now, she needed to run. A hard body tackled her from behind forcing her to the ground and knocking the air out of her. The cloth returned to cover her face right before she tried to gasp for clean air. The smell rushed into her lungs and she fell limp, her world going black.

* * *

From that moment onward Jade had been thrown from one test to another by a group of scientists. She had no concept of time and no clue where she could be. There was so much pain and drugs flowing through her veins that it was a miracle that she woke even for the short intervals that she did.

When she woke this time there was a heavy sort of excitement in the air making her grow nervous. Last time that feeling came she had been forced through a marathon of painful testing while some sort of drug kept her awake through it all. Something was restraining her to a hard surface and there were wires connected all over her body.

“Throw the switch.”

Blinding pain burned into her already weakened body. This made the previous tests seem like a walk in the park. If her vocal cords weren’t already torn to shreds she would have screamed bloody murder. As it was the only thing her body could do was spasm in a way that was eerily similar to an epileptic attack.

Then she fell back into sweet relieving darkness as her body and mind shut down.

 

When she next awoke it was to a strange feeling of not being in her body. What had those monsters done to her? Voices reached her throbbing brain forcing her to concentrate on her surroundings without opening her eyes knowing that light would only hurt her more.

“I can’t believe we succeeded.”

“Well believe it. I’m just surprised that we managed it with only a piece or the original energy source.”

“Do you think she’ll go crazy like the ones created from just machines?”

“Not likely, it was made with machine and human. It should be much tamer.”

“You mean she.”

“No, I mean it.”

“I have to agree with Archer on this one. We used a female human; her mind is in there somewhere.”

“On top of that, clearly the body is a more female body type compared to the likes of the others we’ve seen.”

“I don’t care, it’s a robot and thus an ‘it’.”

As the voices continued to bicker about their morals Jade’s thoughts swirled in chaos. What worked? What did they mean by human and machine? What did they mean by robot and her mind being in one?

What the hell happened to her?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Those insane excuses for human beings turned her into a robot! Not just any type of robot, oh no, it had to be a giant robot that used to be her precious truck! How was that even possible? Sure the psychopathic “scientists” had explained it to her when she had woken up without pain or being drugged for the first time since her kidnapping, but it just didn’t seem real!

Upon waking Jade had been informed that she had been the first success of a government project known as Project M, short for “machine” or “mechanical” or something else equally obvious and related to robots. The tests had been to determine how well the change would hold. When she had passed out during what she thought was another test, it had actually been the scientists transferring her consciousness into her truck, which they had also taken during her kidnapping, all while using some sort of alien energy. When the procedure was complete her 1980 Ford F-250 started shifting and grinding till it resembled the shape the poor girl found herself in now. A deeper explanation of the process was given to her, but it left her more confused and frightened than before.

Now Jade sat in her cell with walls so think she would never break out of it with brute force, or so she was told. The walls were reflected, probably one way windows so she could be observed. That was how she discovered what she now looked like. The cell was incredibly high so Jade couldn’t figure out how tall she was. Her body, or would it be frame, was like it was as a human in her mind. She was big at the chest and hips and slightly smaller at the waist, but she was still “thick” looking all together making her look more masculine. Her eyes remained their bright shade of blue even though they stared out from a metal face framed by red metal in a helmet-like shape. As for what happened to her car well, it seemed to be a part of her now. The hood and part of the front frame wrapped around her shoulders and molded to her upper back, chest, and arms in almost a parody of armor, the majority of the front end resting on her back. The bed of the truck ended up splitting apart and wrapping around her legs and hips. Both doors rested on her hips and the wheels could be found in pairs, two on her shoulders and the others resting just above her ankles. All in all her body was big, blocky, and still the same red as her truck had been except for the grey where the “armor” didn’t cover.

Even though she had been given a week to adjust before the tests started again, this being day five, there was no way she could fully come to rejoice in this scientific advance. She was a robot now. She couldn’t go to college anymore, would never see her friends and family, she would never do all the things she wanted to do as a human. She was a monster.

Raised voices and footsteps called the brooding girl’s attention from her thoughts. What could possibly be going on now? Two of the scientists, while still considered crazy by her, seemed to have made it their mission to help her adjust. Sure, _now_ they felt bad about turning a high school graduate into a robot. Such warped morals they had.

As predicted the door to the catwalks that were level to where her neck was if she were standing opened and the two scientists walked in. First was Archer, a white man in his mid-thirties with blonde hair and blue eyes. Then was Kleane, a shockingly intelligent young woman with what Jade believed to be Hispanic ancestry somewhere in there. Both wore lab coats and both where only addressed by their last names.

“What they want to do is just disgusting! It’s one thing to experiment on adults, but children? I won’t do it!” Kleane snarled as she walked in behind Archer.

“I agree with you on that. They say that they’re just robots, but we’ve seen how they act. They’re so much like my baby girl that I feel sick just thinking about their plan.” Archer shuddered at what must have been an unpleasant image in his mind.

“What about children?” Jade asked suddenly alert. She would not let them repeat what they did to her to children.

“Those beasts used the energy to make smaller robots. They act like children for crying out loud; they have a child’s mindset. Those monsters want to experiment on children!” Kleane was close to screeching at this point.

Whatever fluid flowed through Jade’s robotic veins froze. Children, even if they weren’t human to begin with, were in danger. Something within her mind clicked and surged forward until it slammed into the barrier within her mind. Apparently the scientists had blocked the negative effects of the alien energy by putting some sort of block to separate her mind from the instincts and programs the energy gave her. That barrier crumbed under the might of whatever programming was activated.

Jade shot to her feet and glared down at the two suddenly nervous scientists.

“We start planning now,” she all but growled.

* * *

How in the hell that crappy plan worked Jade would never know!

Archer had created a distraction of some kind that drew everyone’s attention far away from her and the children. Kleane then released the children from their cages and led them back to Jade’s cell. Jade then hid the four small robots that only came to Kleane’s hip in a compartment that rested just above the container holding the glowing blue ball that was her new heart. Then Kleane used what little time was left of the distraction to lead Jade out of the facility. Once outside Jade transformed into her truck and sped down the road like a bat out of hell, the children somehow ending up in the cab.

That plan was so stupid and liable to failure that somehow it worked. Kleane and Archer would stay behind and try to delay any search groups that would look for them. Kleane had also given Jade the source of the alien energy, a small sliver of some kind of metal, which now resided in the glove box. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any more experiments with it missing.

The immediate outside of the facility was miles of flat barren waste land obviously meant to deter escape. Past that and a few hours of driving Jade entered a city. She found a way to create a hologram of her human body to look like she was driving and made another so that the shockingly quiet children would be mistaken as a large backpack for hiking. She kept driving and driving until she found herself going across another desert-like landscape.

* * *

It had been hours since they had left the city and Jade slowed down as she came to a gate. She had taken a well hidden turnoff thinking she would find a rock formation of some kind to hide in. A seemingly abandoned military base was certainly not a rock formation. Another program kicked on while the one from before continued to run. It must have been some sort of scan as a minute later she knew there wasn’t a soul on the entire base.

Transforming back into a large robot Jade stepped over the gate gently. Luckily the ground was packed down so she wouldn’t have to worry about her large foot prints being found. Her blue eyes trailed over the multitude of broken down buildings and large open spaces. Locating the largest intact building, an airplane hanger, Jade made a beeline for it and sighed at the shaded relief from the sun once inside.

Sitting down she opened the compartment where the children where and gently pulled them out. As if sensing they were safe and four toddled about the hanger with all the curiosity of a human child. All four had what looked like wings on their backs which Jade thought meant they could fly. For now the little robots only occasionally hovered a few inches off the ground chirping excitedly when they made it past three seconds. There was a large one, it looked male, stood taller and bulkier than the other four. He seemed to be making sure the group stayed together and safe. Next was another male, this one only slightly shorter than the “leader” of the group. This one seemed to want to poke at everything just to see what happened. Next were two little females that looked to be twins. They held hands as they walked around even if one seemed more inclined to stay near their savior than the other.

With a sigh Jade slouched against the surprisingly still stable wall. The program that had taken hold of her retreated, but she felt like it would be back soon. There were too many questions. What if they were caught again? Could she really keep all of them hidden? What about food? She had been getting what looked like warnings in a language she didn’t know in the corner of her eyes, but the empty feeling where her stomach should be told her that she was hungry. Would oil work for now? Would that be safe for the children? How would she get some?

Irritated Jade slide to her side not caring about the paint since it was already ruined by the scientists. Maybe once she figured the most important things out she would look into redoing it and painting the children so she could tell them apart and name them. As she drifted off to sleep the tired adult sized robot didn’t notice that the children had returned to her, curling up in her arms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Slowly the world around Jade came back to life. The sound of howling had woken her up in the middle of the night. Coyotes most likely; not close enough to need to worry about though. Stupid robot hearing made everything seem so loud. While the cell may have been too strong for her to break it certainly didn’t bloke out the sound of voices.

Something was trembling in her arms; actually it was more than one thing. Blinking nonexistent sleep from her eyes the young woman looked down at her curled arms. Nestled in her arms were the children she had rescued hours before. One of the females was clutching at the metal on Jade’s chest trembling and whining. The other one was clinging to her twin seeming to be clicking a mile a minute. The two males huddled themselves close to the females, the smaller one whining while the larger one only trembled.

Humming softly Jade rolled onto her back with a bit of maneuvering. Instinctively she placed each child so they rested on top of her chest. Luckily they were all really small compared to her so there was enough room for all of them. Her humming was soon accompanied by the purring of the truck motor. Instantly the little ones quieted down, though they huddled as close to her body as they could. Sighing Jade resigned herself to staying awake to calm them down. Curiously she poked at different things within her mind wanting to know what else she could do. It was best to learn as much about herself as possible so that protecting herself and the children wouldn’t as difficult. If it was just herself it wouldn’t be a pressing issue, but kids were involved now and she would rather die than let those scientists get a hold of them again.

Suddenly she found her vision engulfed by a webpage welcoming her to the Dogpile search page. Wait, how did she do that? Backtracking she managed to figure out how to get back onto the internet. Well now she could find someplace that had oil barrels to see if it would make the pain in her “stomach” go away. She was part car now, so it should work for her. She was leery about letting the children have the same though. They looked like they could fly so did that mean they needed something like jet fuel? She would have to give them some of what she found and see how they reacted.

Poking around on the internet for a place with oil really didn’t take that long. Now how did she get some? Yet again she surprised herself by somehow hacking into the business’ database and finding the paperwork for a shipment that would be going to a construction site nearby early in the morning, like before the sun rose. Talk about convenient. Now that she could work with. Using her new found hacking skills Jade changed the number of barrels and noted the location of the delivery sight, not too far from the city. Now she just needed to get there.

The shifting and soft whirling sound on her chest made her pause. Looking down at the children the young woman was greeted with four pairs of questioning eyes, two red and two blue.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

The unofficial leader of the group started chirping at her. She didn’t know what he was saying though. Back to her first thought on that though; it could be that between the little group he had been named leader and since Jade couldn’t understand them she didn’t know that.

Jade wrapped her arms around the four before she carefully sat up. “Are you all hungry?” Little chirps and whines responded to her question which she assumed meant yes. She couldn’t leave them here, not if they were being chased. Bringing them with her was also risky since she could be discovered and attacked. The bright eyes staring up at her forced her decision. Opening the chamber above her “heart” she smiled down at them. “Alright, get in. We’re going to find something to fill those little bellies, okay?”

One by one the children climbed into the area and settled down before the door, or cover, to it closed. Standing up Jade started toward the gate. She had about an hour drive before she reached the delivery site. That gave her an hour to figure out how to create a solid hologram to sneak the barrels onto the truck bed. She really wished she had paid better attention in her computer class.

* * *

It wasn’t until they were all back at the rundown base safe and sound with at least eight barrels of oil that Jade’s conscience kicked in. She had just stolen something and probably taken more than she needed. As fast as the thought came the barely active program from her escape refuted the thought. That oil was needed to keep both her and the children alive, it was necessary for survival.

Feeling better about the crime she had just committed Jade stopped panicking as she stopped in front of the gate. Sinking down on her back axis and pushing up with her front axis she dropped the tail gate and let the barrels roll out of the bed. She did not want to try changing forms with those in the way. Swiftly she transformed into a robot and picked up the barrels before stepping over the fence.

Back in the hanger Jade gently placed the barrels on the floor and let the children out of the compartment. Time to experiment. With four eyes watching her with rapt attention and girl took one barrel and popped the entire top off. She had meant to only take the small cap off but this worked too. It looked disgusting to say the least. Bringing the barrel to her metal lips she took a cautious sip and then another. It didn’t really taste that bad, even though she wasn’t sure how a robot could have taste buds. The painful feeling in her stomach quieted, but the warnings in the corners of her eyes still flashed. So Jade drank the last of the open barrel and then drank another full barrel before the warnings went away.

Setting the empty barrels off to one side she sat down. Taking another barrel in hand she carefully managed to take only the small cap off this time. Looking at the children she asked, “Who wants to try it first?”

The larger male stepped forward. With a smile Jade picked him up, cradling him in one arm before bringing the open barrel to his lips. He drank a little, but then decided he liked it as he began take larger gulps.  When he finally finished about a fourth of the barrel was gone. Placing him in her lap as he gave a cute little yawn she picked up the bold female who had all but bounced over to her leg. It went the same way with the other two as well, each drinking a fourth of the barrel before being placed in her lap for a nap.

A smile graced her lips as she watched the little ones nap after putting the empty barrel with the others. Her heart gave a little throb at the thought of what could have happened to them if they hadn’t been rescued. They had no one to take care of them. Sure she was still a kid herself, but she could take care of them. She’d be damned if anyone hurt them again. Her dad always said she had a soft spot for kids anyway.

Slipping into the land of dreams Jade didn’t notice that the protective program that had been switching on and off since she woke up was now completely shut down as if it was waiting for when it was needed again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Small childish giggles pierced through the heavy fog called sleep that Jade had been under. With a great big yawn she opened her eyes and blinked over at the children without getting up. What she saw made it hard to choose between laughing at the scene or sighing in weary annoyance.

The children had found the empty barrels from the morning and apparently thought they would be fun toys. All three empty containers were turned upside down so that the little devils could jump from one to the other, in the case of the bold female and the small male, or run in between them like the large male and the shy female. Each jump or hop was accompanied by the sounds of small thrusters roaring to life to prolong air time. It was honestly cute to watch, especially the two running around the barrels trying to sneak up on the other and catch them by surprise. Their little squeals of surprise or joy melted any irritation Jade had toward being woken up.

Unfortunately the young woman needed to get up now. The rest of the base needed to be explored and child-proofed. Nothing good came from keeping children locked inside all the time, even if they had to be extremely careful to remain undetected. With great effort Jade stood then stretched hearing little pops and creaks as her sore muscles worked to loosen the stiffness that had settled due to sleeping sitting up. Her blue eyes closed in bliss at a loud pop that eased the tension in her neck.

Excited little chirps caused her to open her eyes again. The two that had been jumping on the barrels were waving both their little arms at her calling her attention. The large male held the barrel that the bold female was hopping on so that she wouldn’t fall off and hurt herself. The shy female stayed by the only unoccupied barrel hidden partially behind it. Each and every one of them wore smiles on their faces and watched her with expectant eyes. Jade couldn’t help but give them a soft smile.

“I need all of you to stay here for a bit. I’m going to look around outside for about an hour, no more than that, okay? Then I’ll be right back,” she spoke softly to them. Getting a nod from each of them Jade turned and left the hanger.

Outside she walked to gate then set a brisk pace to walk, actually she ran, the inside of the fenced perimeter. When she finished her legs felt nice and stretched out and she knew that the fence was completely intact. Checking the timer she had set the protector of those metal children walked around the buildings. There wasn’t actually a lot of damage like she had originally thought. Some had broken windows and doors, several had holes in the roof, but overall the damage wasn’t too extensive. Still since this was a base for _humans_ she couldn’t go inside and clean anything up to make sure the children didn’t get hurt since they _could_ get in.

The timer went off with a sharp bing as she turned to head back to the hanger. She really hoped they would listen to her and stay out of the other buildings. There wasn’t much here to begin with, but that also meant if one of them got hurt she wouldn’t be able to help them.

Opening the door wider and taking a step in she failed to see one of the barrels turned on its side with a slab of metal on top. Having one’s foot slide out from underneath them and then sliding about half way into the hanger was not fun. Neither was hitting one’s head against the floor on the fall. A pained groan came from Jade’s lips as she sat up. Feeling the back of her head she winced at the sizable dent her fingers met. That better not cause problems later. Giggles and chirps of glee drew the injured girl’s attention to the bold female who was laughing as if her fall was the funniest thing in the word. Great a prankster, just what she needed. That one would give her issues since all the pranksters she had known hadn’t liked to follow any rules set on them.

A concerned sounding warble at her side made the dismayed girl look down. Standing next to her hip was the other female looking back at her with worry. Scooping the little one up in her hand Jade ran a soothing finger over the child’s head and back. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” she reassured the slowly relaxing child. This one seemed like she would follow rules and would cling to Jade’s side.

A shrill static like sound reach her not so human ears, or whatever she had now. Snapping her head toward the oil cans a gasp escaped her lips. The larger male was pulling the smaller one off of one of the unopened oil barrels. It sounded like he was angrily lecturing the one he held onto. He would most likely follow any rule she gave and try to keep the others in line. The smaller male, however, was looking at the cap he had taken off the barrel and looking at it in fascination, completely ignoring what the other was saying. The saying curiosity killed the cat popped into Jade’s mind instantly letting her know that he would be a problem just for being inquisitive.

Then a thought hit Jade full force. The children didn’t have names. The scientists at Project M most likely called them by numbers so that would never do. She had to name them, at least so she could have them respond to something. It wasn’t right for a child to not have a name.

With that in mind she called the last three over and picked them up in her hands, two to a hand.

“I’ve decided that you all need names.” Excited chirps and squeals interrupted her, but she plowed on over them, “I’ll think of something and you can tell me whether or not you like it.”

Looking at each one Jade thought hard as to what to call them. A human name would never do as they weren’t human and it wouldn’t fit them. Maybe she should combine different words together to make their names. That could work, she could use words the described their personalities or something. After that it didn’t really take long to come up with something for each child. Placing each child on the floor she lined them up.

“You will be Skymaze, Sky for short,” she said pointing to the large male who nodded and puffed out his chest acting all proud.

“”You’ll be Labtech, nickname Tech.” She pointed to the smaller male who tilted his head and nodded. If he could speak English she was sure he’d ask her the dreaded “Why?” question.

She pointed to the bouncing bold female that had pranked her. “You’re Trapmaster, Trap for short.” The female squealed in delight and bounced more.

Finally coming to the shy female Jade smiled encouragingly at her, receiving a small smile back. “And you’re Healingblade and your nickname will be Healing.” The female nodded and gave a happy little chirp.

Watching the joy on their little faces made Jade’s heart soar. She was making her very own little family right here with these kids. Her dad would be so proud of her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

Standing up, Jade cleaned up the remains on Trapmaster’s prank. Considering the limited materials in the hanger, most too heavy for the child to move, it was a pretty good prank. Looking at the floor she winced at the large red skid mark. There went any possible chance of having a decent paint job when she turned into her F-250. Looking back at the expectant children the young woman sighed. They were more important than a stupid paint job anyway.

With a smile Jade opened one of the hanger doors wide open before turning to the kids.

“Alright, I’m going to give you some rules you have to follow if you want to go outside. No going into any building other than this one. Stay in my line of sight at all times. Stay inside the fence. You break these rules and you won’t play outside. Am I clear?”

Skymaze and Healingblade automatically nodded with determined looks on their faces. Trapmaster looked ready to protest but stopped when Sky glared at her. She pouted and crossed her little arms over her chest as she nodded. Labtech nodded but then tilted his head to the side asking “Why?” without speaking again.

“I just want you all to be safe. I don’t want any of you getting hurt,” she explained before stepping outside. Turning around she smiled and put a hand on her hip. “You coming out or what?” she teased.

Immediately Trap and Tech came out running ready to ignore the rules and explore. Maze ran after them seeming to know what they were up to and trying to head them off. Healing stayed at the doorway just out of reach from the sunlight. Making sure the other three weren’t going into the building they were poking at Jade made a “come here” gesture with a gentle flick of her red wrist. Slowly but surely the shy little female picked her way over to Jade had held up her trembling arms. The resolve the larger robot had previously made to not baby this child crumbled swiftly, leaving her no choice but to pick the kid up. Immediately Healing huddled against her chest seeking extra comfort.

“Shh, it’s alright. I’m not going to force you to enjoy this,” she cooed at the small robot in her hands, humming softly so that the trembling would stop.

Looking up at the sky Jade estimated the time to be about one in the afternoon. They’d stay out for no more than an hour. This was one of the hottest times of the day and she didn’t want to discover how much heat they could take until one of them fainted from heatstroke. If robots can get heatstroke that is. Maybe it would be termed overheating instead; that did make more sense considering she was thinking about robots.

So the minutes ticked by. While Tech and Trap ran around from building to building with Maze hot on their heels, Jade was walking after them with Heeling in her hand. Being so much larger than them made it easy for her to not only keep a relaxed pace, but she could see them easily since she was taller that the buildings, all of which she estimated were no more than two floors. Healingblade stayed firmly in Jade’s hand, refusing every attempt to get her to play with the other three. Sighing the young woman gave up. There was no use in trying to force her to play.

**“Carrier!”**

Jade’s head whipped around wondering where the sound had come from. They couldn’t have been discovered that quickly could they?

**“No Carrier, over here! Look what I’ve found!”**

Jade slowly turned her attention back to the children on the ground. There was Labtech proudly showing off his newest discovery, which happened to be a blow torch. Where in the hell did he find that thing?

“Labtech, Sweetie, please put that down.” Was there any fuel in that thing? Was it still functional? Was it secure and safe from exploding?

**“Why?”** Tech’s little head tilted to the side.

“Because it’s a very dangerous tool that only adult humans use. It’s too dangerous for children.” She had to get him to either put it down or give it to her.

**“But I wanna know how it works!”** he whined making Jade’s left eye twitch a bit. She really hated whining.

Squaring her shoulders she spoke in a firm voice, “Labtech you will put that back where you found it or I will put you in timeout.”

**“That’s not fair!”** Jade shot him a stern look that she used to give disobedient kids she babysat as a human. **“Fine.”** Watching him go back into a building she knew which one she needed to bloke off. When he came back he was still pouting.

Sighing Jade picked him up and cuddled him. “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

**“Yes Carrier,”** he muttered against her.

When Healingblade patted his shoulder Jade realized what she had ignored during her panic to get the blowtorch away from him. She understood what he was saying. Well, most of it anyway, she had no idea as to what a “carrier” was except that it must have meant her. Then another thought hit her. Where were the other two?

“Tech, where are Maze and Trap?” She looked down and the still pouting male.

Before he could respond the two missing children can out of the building where the blowtorch was found. Actually, it looked more like Maze was dragging Trap behind him looking decidedly grumpy and covered in dust. It seemed that Trap was fighting him every step of the way whining in that language that the children seemed to talk in. Maybe it was something they didn’t know how to talk to her like Tech had. Whatever, it wasn’t something that important at the moment. However, Jade prayed that whatever Trap was whining about wasn’t dangerous. Knowing Trap, even in the short time they had been together, it meant that her fine most likely was prank related.

Moving Tech to the same hand as Healing, Jade scooped the two up and walked back to the hanger. The entire way there she listened to Skymaze lecture the small female about something, hopefully telling the pouting girl to listen to the only adult out of the group. Jade briefly tried to figure out what “carrier” meant, but still hadn’t come up with a definition yet.

Placing the children down on the floor Jade then sat down herself. She waited for the bickering and whining to stop before she addressed them.

“We came back inside because most of you went inside the buildings when I told you not to. I don’t care if you went in to stop Trap, Sky. You still went into the building, though I appreciate that you kept her from getting hurt. Since I can’t seem to trust any of you and Healingblade seems to want to stay by my side, no one is allowed outside for the rest of the day. Am I understood?” She got crying and whining, but she stayed firm. “While under my care I will treat you as my own kids. Which means I’m the ‘Mumma’ and you have to do as I say. I’m trying to keep you safe and healthy. I know you’ll understand eventually.” With that she stood and sat down again against the doorframe so she could prevent the little ones from going against their punishment. It took all of her willpower to ignore their cries and whining. This was how her Mumma raised her and she would raise them the same way. She just hoped that they tired out soon, hearing them so upset tore at her heart.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Finally the whining and crying stopped. Taking a cautious peak over her shoulder Jade sighed in relief. The four had tired themselves out from their tantrums and were curled up together in a pile.

Quietly Jade stood from her spot and closed the door with equal care. She figured that with the last few hours of day light she could block off that building. She quickly managed to find the building in question. Luckily for her there were large crates laying randomly around the base that she could use for blockades. She had barely gone five steps toward the first building when she heard the sound of a vehicle coming towards the base.

Quickly she hid herself behind the hanger leaving a scan on. It was one car, small, maybe a Honda, with two humans that just got out. Turning up her hearing with the weird HUD set up that warned her when she was hungry, Jade was just able to hear the two talking as the sound of car doors opening came to her ears. As it turns out the voices were very familiar.

“Are you sure she’s here? We couldn’t pick up a signal from her or the children.”

“Yes I’m sure. This is the only human-made place big enough to hide all of them. If I’m right then we have to warn her.”

“Warn me of what?” Jade demanded as she rounded the hanger heading toward the gate.

On the other side of the gate were Archer and Kleane looking worse for wear than the last time they had been seen. Kleane was holding onto her left arm which seemed to be hanging limp at her side. Her normally sleek black hair was tangled and frizzy getting into her bruised face. Archer seemed to be favoring his right leg and his face and clothes were covered in dirt and blood, not to mention the dark ugly bruises he had on any showing skin.

The two seemed to sigh in relief at the sight of her. Archer stepped closer to answer. “Project M is after you, they know Kleane and I helped you and are searching for us now that we’ve escaped. You need to clear out of here before they come.”

“How did they find us so fast?” Jade asked already searching the internet for an alternative hideout.

“Common sense and technology. For some reason you don’t show on any scans and when the children are with you they don’t either. But this is the largest man-made area around to hide all of you comfortably. They’ll check here first and spread out from there,” Kleane explained.

The mini map she had used to find the oil popped up in front of her eyes. Searching for a temporary place through geographical maps, Jade looked at the scientists. “What about you two? They’ll be able to find you won’t they?”

The dark skinned woman laughed bitterly while Archer smiled sadly at her. “We know we can’t run forever, but at least we can keep them off your trail for a while.”

Unwanted tears gathered in the red robot’s eyes. They hadn’t planned to survive helping her from the beginning. Granted the two were unremorseful when it came to turning her into a robot, but they had still tried to make things easier for her.

“What, you’re crying now?” Kleane teased.

“Don’t be stupid,” Jade grumbled. “One of the children got dirt in my eyes while we were playing.” They didn’t believe her, but she didn’t care. Nodding and saying goodbye she watched as the two got back in their car and drove off, most likely going way over the speed limit. She would probably never see those two again.

A sudden sense of urgency overtook Jade causing her to run back to the hanger. Inside she tip toed around the slumbering pile of children to the still full barrels. She drank the open one before checking her systems for a compartment to hold the last four in. Her search mentioned something like a subspace pocket thing. There were multiple ones all over her body, but in order to hold all the barrels she’d have to use the largest one which was on her back hidden under the truck hood. Making sure each barrel was firmly closed so they wouldn’t leak she tucked the remaining four into the compartment.

Turning to the children she gently shook them all awake. Putting on a serious face she opened the compartment above her heart as she picked them up. Getting startled and questioning chips at her actions, Tech asking the dreaded “why” question yet again, the children one by one climbed into the compartment.

“The bad people I saved you from and coming, we need to leave.” Was all she said before closing the compartment and leaving the hanger.

Turning toward the back of the base, Jade ran across the ridiculously large amount of space between the hanger and back fence. Suddenly her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of several cars driving up to the front gate. Normally not one for swearing, Jade let out a long stream of foul words loose within her mind as yelling and screaming followed her as she tried to hide behind one of the smaller buildings. The moment she knew they had seen her was obvious since they started firing guns at her. Out of the bullets that managed to reach her, some bounced harmlessly off her thick metal hide while others pierced the protective metal, getting stuck inside the think material before reaching anything vital. She could fight them, but the gate being driven through by one of the cars changed her mind.

Before they could drive into her legs and trip her, or worse, she bolted the last few yards separating her from the fence. She ran over the fence, managing to keep it intact as she went over and sprinted off to the next best hiding place. Gun fire and angry yelling followed in her wake, but she didn’t stop. There was no way any of them were going back to that hell if she could help it.

* * *

Five hours. It had taken her five hours to get to this decent sized cave out in the middle of nowhere. At least three of those hours had been driving all over the place after she had transformed leaving behind multiple false trails for Project M to follow. The other two had been spent making sure she didn’t leave a trail as she made her way to the cave.

Sighing in relief Jade transformed inside the cave, deep enough where no one could see her if they walked by. Immediately she opened the compartment for the children and carefully pulled them out one by one. They had fallen asleep while she was making the fake tracks. Carefully, she placed them down before speedily unloading the oil.

Not wanting to let the children get cold Jade scooped them up again and sat against the cave wall with her knees up. She held the little ones close to her heart as she settled down for a sleepless night of playing look out. Kleane and Archer weren’t here to give her a heads up anymore.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

The night was long and tedious, but Jade stayed awake through it all. There was no way she would let her guard down after coming so close to recapture. Those monsters would have to fight her tooth and nail if they wanted to take any of them back. Never again would she let her guard down.

The sun rose in the sky, bright light gracing the dirty cave floor letting the young woman know that night was over. Still she kept her vigil, staying ready in case she needed to run again. Several hours later, according to the clock “application” she had found, the children woke up hungry. So one by one they drank until another barrel was gone. Jade herself drank another barrel; her body had used what it had previously consumed due to all the activity the other afternoon.

Not even ten minutes after waking Trapmaster and Labtech became bored and fidgety. Sighing, Jade let all the children explore the cave with a strict rule to stay inside. The cave was large height wise, easily letting her stand up and not hit her head. It was also decently wide enough so that the only legal adult of the group didn’t feel claustrophobic. It was like a grand exploration mission for the two rambunctious metal children, followed closely by Skymaze and Healingblade who were slowly following them.

Jade stood from her spot and stretched a bit. She needed to get the knots out of her muscles before anything happened. Staying tense and on guard throughout the night was not something she recommended. Satisfied with the last large pop her back gave the red robot glanced around for the children. Best to keep an eye on them until she was sure it was safe to return to the base. There was Sky sitting off to the side not far from her animatedly talking to Healing, maybe he was telling her a story or something. Searching the rest of the cave there wasn’t a sign of Trap or Tech. Franticly she searched again. They couldn’t have gone outside in the short time she had looked away from the cave opening could they? As a second sweep came up with no results that unlikely event turned frighteningly plausible.

“Sky, Healing, I want you both to stay here and not go anywhere. I’m going to find Trap and Tech.” Receiving obedient nods she heading to the entrance of the cave.

For a moment the sun blinded her. Once she was able to see though, her heart nearly leapt out of her chest. Standing over the petrified forms of Trap and Tech was another robot. It looked male, judging from the lack of “breasts”, and was at least a good five feet taller than Jade. He wasn’t as dense as she was, looking light and flexible with strong wings that occasionally twitched. His red eyes stared widely at the children as if he had never seen one before. For a moment Jade considered the tall gray male. He wasn’t harming anything at the moment, maybe he would be gentle.

He reached for the children.

The program that helped with the escape from Project M flared within her brain taking over her body and mind. Jade took hold of a corner of the door on her right hip. There was a click and where before there was a seamless door now there was a diamond shaped center piece with a sharp curved shape still attached. In her right hand was another curved piece of metal which she threw at the male, aiming for his arm. As if sensing the attack he pulled himself away from the children as the projectile just barely missed him. It arched back toward Jade and she caught the deadly spinning blade.

They stared at each other as Trap and Tech ran back into the cave.

“Stay away from my children,” Jade growled, her engine rumbling giving her a more menacing sound.

The male scoffed, “They couldn’t possibly be your sparklings, Femme. No seeker would willingly lay with a grounder.” His sneer made it pretty obvious he had just insulted her.

“If all ‘seekers’ are as arrogant, showy, and all around unbecoming as you are then I’m glad that I didn’t have to bed one, adoption is so much easier,” Jade sneered back.

With a screech that nearly destroyed her eardrums the male launched himself at her. Barely thinking her actions through Jade dived to the side, twisting along the way to detach a boomerang from her left hip. Back on her feet in a matter of seconds Jade attacked, her slashing lunges extended due to her weapons. The male expertly dodged her attacks, or she was just really that bad at fighting, causing the red robot to silently fume. She watched as the arrogant shit flew into the air, roaring jet engines making her flinch due to how close the two of them had been. No, he wouldn’t get away that easily. Changing her grip on the weapons Jade threw them as hard as she could at the annoying flier. She quickly dived out of the resulting gunfire aimed at her, drawing the other boomerangs at the same time. Watching him dodge her first attack she threw another at him, leading just enough so that she could hopefully at least nick a wing. No such luck as he dove then did a flip to avoid the fourth twirling blade before returning fire.

Running to avoid the bullets Jade caught the first two returning blades before immediately launching one at the male. The thankful distraction helped her put more distance between the two of them and pull the fight away from the cave a little. How was she going to beat him? She couldn’t chase him in the sky and he seemed determined to kill her after her smart mouthed insult. Daddy always did say her mouth would get her into trouble. Catching another blade then throwing the other Jade snarled as she ducked around a large rock mass. She cringed as bullets, at least she thought they were bullets, battered the poor formation causing chips of stone to fly everywhere. This cover wouldn’t last long if he kept that up.

A sudden distressed chirp reached her ears and Jade whipped her head in the direction it came from. Standing just barely inside the cave, which wasn’t as far from the fight as Jade would have liked, were the children each looking equally scared out of their minds. Anger flared within the young woman. Her children were scared and she needed to protect them. Giving a roar of fury Jade whipped around the protective cover. She felt several clicks go off at once but she barely took notice as she threw her only blade on hand, the others spread out on the ground. The sound of rapid pulse like fire erupted near her ears; apparently she had some sort of pulse cannons on her shoulders. As she went to run, instead of her feet pounding on the ground she ended up gliding like she was on stakes. Looking down she noticed the wheels on her ankles were lower than they had been before. Swiftly she picked up her boomerangs from the ground while dodging and returning fire.

Finally something happened in her favor. The last boomerang she threw nicked the flying annoyance on the wing. He screeched in pain and indignation causing the children to scream in fright. He stopped his intended dive at Jade and stared in shock at the four little robots cowering at the cave opening. He changed course, heading for the children. Jade met him there.

They stared at each other, Jade snarling up at him and the male glaring down at her hovering just off the ground so he loomed over her.

“I said leave my kids alone,” she snarled.

“I don’t have to listen to you, Femme. I should take them with me and raise them as seekers should be,” he snapped back.

The cannons on her shoulders whirled as they readied to fire on the male. “Touch any of them and I will personally rip you to shreds.” Her voice lowered to a deadly quality.

The male stared at her before smirking. “Tough little femme aren’t you?” He went to hold her chin in his clawed hand, but she slapped it away and held two pointed boomerang blades at his cabled neck. He had the nerve to chuckle. “I am Starscream, who did you steal the sparklings from Femme?”

Jade wondered if she would get bad karma if she killed the pest in front of her without getting answers out of him first.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are Cybertronian terms for telling time in this chapter. As these terms can vary between iterations in the franchise, I compiled a list or the ones I'll be using in this story. There will start popping up in the story from now on. So I don't have to constantly have repost this, I'm going to post the list in "Not Fair Bits and Bites" Chapter 2.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

“Call me ‘femme’ one more time and I’ll blow your head off your shoulders. I told you I adopted them, or is you hearing as bad as your aim,” Jade snarled. Oh, how she wanted to swear at him. She could think of so many things to call the male, but children shouldn’t learn such language. Not until they are older at least.

 

Starscream gritted his denta. Such a stupid femme, did she really have no processing power in that helm of hers? What he had said was true. With the way the war was going seekers couldn’t trust grounders to not stab them in the back during the delicate process of sparking a partner. Grounders also wouldn’t dare take in a seekerling, let alone four, if there was a seeker alive that would take it in; every Bot and Con knew that. Seekers were incredibly protective of their own kind.

Clenching his servos the grown seeker took a moment to calm down. It wouldn’t do to have the sparklings witness him murder the femme in front of them. He conveniently disregarded the fact that he had been attacking her not an astrosecond ago. Shuttering his optics Starscream finally took stock of the group before him.

The sparklings were in decent condition, a bit dusty and in need of a wash, but overall looked to be physically healthy. The femme on the other servo looked beaten to the pit and back. Her red paint was chipped and scratched off, the thick armor was filled with dents and scuff marks, and her helm was severely dented in the back. Yet she stood before him covered in grime and significantly shorter with flying blades and shoulder energy cannons pointed at him ready to defend the sparklings she considered hers. What bothered the flier more than her appearance was that despite her fiery blue eyes she had no faction symbol on her, not even something to identify her as a neutral. On top of that, her signal was incredibly soft, reminiscent of an offlining Cybertronian yet she was obviously still functioning.

Time to get answers.

“You do not want to be called ‘femme,’ fine, what is your designation then, Grounder?” he sneered. Just because he wanted answers didn’t mean he had to be nice about it.

She snarled at him, obviously sensing his insult toward her. She was so easy to rile it was almost more fun than plotting Megatron’s demise.

“How about you start saying words that I actually know the meaning of and maybe we can have a conversation without either of us trying to kill the other. And trust me; it’s really hard to _not_ kill you right where you stand.”

Feisty little thing wasn’t she? If she had been a seeker and the war wasn’t looming over them Starscream would have courted her in a sparkbeat.

“What words does your tiny processor not comprehend, Grounder?”

“Oh, I don’t know maybe ‘gounder,’ ‘femme,’ ‘seeker,’ ‘sparkling,’ and that last one you just said that sounded like it had something to do with a computer,” she snarked and even had the audacity to roll her optics.

“How could you not know basic Cybertronian vocabulary?” The Decepticon Second in Command frowned. Maybe that helm dent _did_ do processor damage.

“What in the name of all things holy is a Cybertronian? All I know is what my Momma and Daddy taught me and the fact that a-” She paused and glanced at the sparklings; “Atrocious humans turned me into a robot and made the kids somehow.” She vented heavily and her cannons powered down, but she kept the blades out. Smart femme indeed. Wait, what happened to her?

“Explain yourself now,” Starscream hissed.

 

Jade bristled at the command and was tempted to bring her cannons back on. The pain in her limbs, stomach, and head told her to do otherwise. Stupid cannons must have used up all of the oil she drank earlier. Giving a sigh of frustration Jade put one of the blades away and scooped the children into her now free hand. With a jerk of the other hand she walked back into the cave keeping an eye on Starscream the whole time. She felt a bit of joy race through her as the male hit his head on the ceiling trying to walk in and had to slouch to avoid doing so again.

Wincing at the creaks and groans of her metallic body as she sat down, Jade placed the shaken children on her shoulders so they could be near her face. They whined and chirped at her, hugging her neck with their small arms and Healingblade trying her best to look for more injuries. She picked up one of the three remaining oil barrels left and popped the top off. Watching the flier as he carefully sat down cross-legged like her, the red robot took a sip of her oil.

“Let’s see now, you want my whole life story or just the part where I was turned into this.” Jade gestured to herself making sure none of the children fell.

“Shorten it as much as you can,” he snapped. What a prick.

“Alright then, I was born a human female to my parents on the east side of this country. I’m not really sure how long ago it was, but I was taken from my journey to visit relatives by some humans that worked for the government. They held me captive running tests on me before one day they turned me into what you see now. Four days after, I discovered those same humans somehow made the children. With the help of two humans I managed to escape with the kids then I hid in the base not far from here. Yesterday the humans that didn’t help us found us and I ran here. End of story.”

Jade chugged the rest of her barrel and opened another, she would have to get more either today or tomorrow. She watched Starscream as he digested the information she had fired off at him. Granted she left out several details like who her family was, where she was from, and how exactly she had been turned into a large robot, but he really didn’t need to know those things. The purple face symbol on his wings was interesting and so were his wings in general. She absently wondered if she could convince him to at least tell her how to train the children to fly before he left. He wasn’t staying with them and he wasn’t taking the little ones with him either.

Blazing red eyes rose from the ground where he had been staring at while thinking and focused on her own blue. “I highly doubt that fleshlings can do what you claim they can, but seeing as you and the sparklings are here I see no point in arguing with a femme that obviously has processor damage from that dent in the helm. You will come with me. You will be fixed and the sparklings placed in more capable servos.”

Jade felt her left eye twitch, a habit that she got from her mother. Instead of channeling her father’s habits of yelling she smiled sweetly at him while her eyes promised nothing but death if he continued. “You can take your demands and shove them extremely far up you backside and then take a nice long hike off a very short pier. The children stay with me and I’m staying here. The most you will do is tell me how to best teach them to fly based on my abilities before leaving and never bothering us again. Are we clear, Mr. Starscream?”

The shock and slight fear the male showed in his eyes as he reared back away from her was very satisfying after brute force and antagonism did nothing.

“Can I at least known your designation?”

“If you mean my name, it’s Jade.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Com. =::--::

* * *

The way the femme delivered the ultimatum made Starscream’s energon freeze. His instincts told him that she was dangerous right now, even more so than Megatron on a bad day. Her entire demeanor forced programming within him, which had been deactivated at the beginning of the war, to start working again. Any self respecting mech worth his energon had this programming. “Don’t anger femmes with sparklings” flashed across his memory files. Hoping to placate the cold fury the seeker asked for her designation.

Jade, she was designated Jade. It didn’t sound Cybertronian in the least, but then again she seemed to only speak the fleashy language known as English. With the processor damage she obviously had it was possible that the fleshies completely destroyed her memory files and put fake ones in place of the originals. Yes that was more believable than the explanation she had given him. Back to her designation, quickly he researched it and found that “jade” was a prized gemstone, more highly valued in the Eastern hemisphere, that was normally green, but was found in other colors such as red.

Not wanting to press his luck with the protective femme Starscream grudgingly accepted her conditions. Standing up the adult seeker growled as his head hit the cave ceiling. Such a stupid place to hide from pathetic fleshies.

“I will show you outside. If you are able to do as I tell you then I will leave you be.” With a slight snarl Starscream walked out of the cave, slouching even further at the entrance to exit unharmed.

He only had to wait a few klicks before the femme came out with the sparklings in her servos. She carefully ducked her helm as she exited the cave and watched him warily the entire time. Though it was she that had told him to teach her how to teach the sparklings to fly, she was still nervous toward him. A very wise decision on her part even if she had put her weapons away.

“If you were a flier this would be easier as you could fly with them. Fliers and seekers fly with the sparklings and take turns gently tossing them between each other normally with a spotter. As you lack the ability to fly you will need to gently toss each sparkling into the air so that they become accustomed to being in the air. I suggest that you do a few tosses standing to simulate take off and a few laying down to simulate flying,” Starscream explained unaware that he had started lecturing like he would when explaining an experiment he was working on.

With a nod Jade set the small mech and two femmes, femme seekers were extremely rare, on the ground a little bit away from her peds, but still giving her enough room to move. Taking a sturdy stance she cupped the larger mech sparkling in her servos before tossing him up in the air. He didn’t go very high, no farther than her shoulders, but the sparkling squealed with joy none-the-less. It would take time for Jade to get used to tossing them at greater heights, but the sparklings would tell her what they wanted.

Starscream watched as the femme switched between sparklings. She would tire out soon from doing this exercise with all four. Even as she tired, her injuries must be worse than he thought, a smile graced her derma as her optics stayed sharply on the sparkling femme she was tossing a little higher than the others. Though he loathed to admit it, the femme did seem like a decent substitute carrier for the sparklings, for the time being. Once his wing brothers came to this mud ball of a planet he would find her again and take the sparklings. If Jade proved to be cooperative then he may convince his wing brothers to bring her along. Besides, the sparklings may be easier to handle with the familiar femme around.

Another bing on his com went off. He had been getting a few of those since he met the group before him. Deciding now was a good time to answer the seeker finally opened his com.

:: Starscream answer your Primus damned com!:: Megatron’s snarling voice met him upon opening his com. Just great, just what he needed.

:: What can I do for you Lord Megatron?:: Starscream hoped the brute didn’t hear the hatred in his response.

:: I am sending you my coordinates. Get your useless aft to me now or I’ll turn you into scrap metal too useless for spare parts! I am awake and have found the Allspark!::

The line went dead before he could respond. Even fragging better! The stupid aft was supposed to stay asleep and trapped until the current troops on this planet could find the Allspark. There went all his careful plans of protecting himself and his trine. He was going to use finding the Allspark as a gift to appease the slagging overgrown sparkling. The Leader of the Decpticons had been getting increasingly more cruel to even his own troops before he disappeared. The peace and security among the ranks was now a thing of the past.

He turned to the femme only to find her and the sparklings watching him.

“Something you want to share with the rest of us? Your eyes dimmed there for a bit,” Jade commented seeming nonchalant about her inquiry.

“I was speaking to my Lord Megatron.” Starscream spat out the name as if it were a vulgar tasting batch of oil that he was forced to drink on this planet as there was no energon.

“Going to pretend I know how you were doing that and ask what he wanted.” Really the femme didn’t even know what a comlink was, though he shouldn’t be surprised with her processor damage.

“He calls for my services. You will remain here until I am able to collect you. This place is not safe enough to raise sparklings in.” He turned his back on her and readied to take flight.

“I’ll stay unless I need to leave. I don’t take orders from jerks like you,” she snapped at him right before he took off. Really the femme needed to learn that what he said goes. She better be at that cave when he got done dealing with Megatron.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

Watching the winged robot transform into a military jet and take off Jade had to scoff at the male. How dare he tell her how to raise her babies. She may not have birthed them, but they were hers to raise, not his. The moment she listened to a damn thing he ordered her to do would be the day hell froze over and she started liking the color pink. If she needed to run from the cave then she damn well would. In fact she may just take the kids and leave right now just to spite the stupid jet.

Wow, she really was committing to this motherhood thing.

Huffing in agitation Jade picked up the curious little robots and walked back into the cave. She was tired again after tossing the children into the air so much. Maybe she was hurt more than she thought. Sitting down Jade winced at the creaking and popping that her metal body made. With a groan the young woman tilted her head back against the cave wall.

The children, still active even after their “flying lesson”, crawled out of her open palm and started to play close to her left leg. Skymaze took it upon himself to keep the smaller children quiet; or as quiet as four small robot children could be. Labtech deviated from the small group. He had already learned to speak to Jade and the others weren’t asking him for help or advice so he decided to get some answers to his many questions.

Tapping on Jade’s leg he waited until she looked at him before raising his little arms saying, **“Up, Carrier!”**

With a content smile the only painted robot, no matter how badly her paint job was destroyed, picked the small male up and cradled him to her chest.

“What are the others doing?” she asked curiously.

**“They are trying to learn how to speak to you so you understand what they say.”** Tech happily curled into Jade’s chest listening to the thrum of her electronic heart.

“Oh, why aren’t you helping them?”

**“They did not ask,”** the small male huffed sounding remarkably like Jade when she did the action. **“I have questions, Carrier.”**

“All right then, ask and I’ll try to answer,” Jade smiled as she closed her eyes, they had started to hurt.

**“Who was the large mech?”**

Jade thought over the word before answering, “Starscream.”

**“Is he our creator?”**

Wait, if carrier was a term for mother then creator must mean- “No, no, no! He’s not your dad!” Jade did _not_ like the idea of sharing parenthood with Starscream. That and the image of the two of them together in her head did not look like child raising material.

**“Why?”** Damn that question.

“The place I took you and the others from, that is where you were born. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that all of you are my children even if I didn’t create you.” Jade pleaded in her mind for him to leave the topic and go to another.

Tech opened his little mouth to ask another question when Jade suddenly shushed him. There was a noise in the distance that caught her attention. After a few seconds Jade quickly scooped up the other three children and shoved them all into their special carrying compartment. The noise sounded like multiple vehicles that were getting closer by the second. Glancing at the last barrel Jade shook her head and transformed. There wasn’t time to put it in a pocket.

Easing out of the cave Jade growled in annoyance. Those were definitely Project M vans. Not wanting to take her chances by waiting longer she pulled out of the cave and floored it. It didn’t matter where she went just as long as she could lose her pursuers. Using the rearview mirror she could see a couple of vans pull up next to the cave and stop while the rest pursued her at increasing speeds. A string of curses rang in her mind as she pushed for more speed. She was pretty sure that her truck wasn’t supposed to be going this fast. If she wasn’t the truck herself then it would be going much slower or she would have used all of her gas by now. As much as her F-250 was her baby, it did horrible on gas mileage and speed.

Finding a paved road Jade tore off toward the city. She would either lose them there or they would catch her in the maze of streets and buildings, but the city looked like her best chance of losing Project M. They must have known what she was thinking since suddenly her tailgate was peppered with bullets. The small shockwaves of pain forced her to push harder while the children screamed. There was no time to comfort them though. The tops of city buildings came into view and grew larger in front while the gun fire increased from behind.

Swerving harshly away from the bullets attacking what was essentially her rear end in this form Jade maneuvered her way around the crashed cars all along the road. Barely giving the destruction around her a thought she drifted around a large pile up that crossed into her lane. The city was growing ever larger, she was so close.

A loud pop followed by a rush of air was the young woman’s only warning before her driver side rear wheel deflated causing the left over rubber and rim to crash onto the blacktop. Sparks flew from the sections of metal as the rubble was quickly flung from its place. Searing pain rippled along her body forcing her to transform into her humanoid form. She tripped and fell onto her front, the breath getting knocked out of her even as she tried to avoid landing on the cars around her. Looking up Jade vaguely noticed a sign off to the side before standing. With a slight limp she ran towards the closest building in long, limping strides praying the children were safe in their compartment.

The sign said, “Welcome to Mission City.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Take a left, then a right, then a left, then a right, pass through two intersections. Jade took a sharp right and ducked into a wide alley. Since she had entered the city she had lost track of where she was. All that mattered was making Project M give up the chase. Aside from that, the woman idly thought about the city. It looked like a war was going on. Buildings were crunched and smashed and the streets looked like meteors had crashed into them. As dangerous as the possibility of a war was Jade also knew it was her best chance of losing Project M.

Watching the entrance to the alley with trepidation Jade nearly jumped out of her skin when a barely audible static like noise came from behind her. Turning so fast that she almost got whiplash, the truck stopped at a truly horrifying sight. Crumpled in the alley was another robot, possibly male, torn in two with a few small wires connecting the two pieces. A large purple puddle was underneath it and swiftly getting larger from being barricaded by two buildings. Extremely dim blue eyes slowly blinked at her from a sliver face that curved into a barely there smile that just about broke her heart. 

* * *

Offlining was something that Jazz always knew he would have to face, it was inevitable in war. As he lay in a pool of his own energon suffering through the worst pain he had ever felt Jazz had to say he was disappointed. Yes he had helped divert attention from the human Sam and the cube for a little while until Optimus could arrive, but he was _not_ a fan of a slow offline from being ripped in half. He was positive that if Ratchet had known where he had landed the medic would have been here patching him up temporarily so he would make it through the battle. There were no regrets though, nothing the music loving mech would want to try and do over.

Giving a groan as a new wave of pain hit him; Jazz vaguely heard a soft, very feminine gasp to his left. Opening his optics the silver mech was treated to the sight that he was sure had to be an illusion brought on by his impending offline. Next to him, but still out of reach from his spilled energon, was a femme. An honest to Primus femme. How long had it been since he had last seen a femme that wasn’t Acree, Elita-One, or Chromia? Those three were the only femmes he ever saw and even _that_ was a rarity. This femme wasn’t as athletic looking as the other three, but she was still good looking in her own way. Her armor looked decently thick and wrapped around her whole frame so she could take a beating and then some. She looked like she had been through the pit too. Her red paint job was so destroyed that it would have brought Sunstreaker to tears. There were hundreds of human bullet holes littering her armor, the tire on her left ankle looked blown, and there looked to be a dent on the back of her helm, even if he couldn’t get a good look at it. Her blue optics were filled with pain, fear, exhaustion, shock, and concern. Her optics said she wasn’t a fighter, but she was forced to wage war.

With a smile he had to think to himself that Primus had given him one pretty sight before his offline.

* * *

Jade stared in horror at the slowly dying robot before her. Taking a step forward into the pool of purple liquid she reached out a hand. There had to be something she could do to help. If not to heal it then to at least make sure it didn’t die alone. Careful not to fall into the liquid she squatted down and placed a gentle hand on the silver robot’s shoulder. It gave her a slightly bigger smile; one she was sure would have been a big toothy grin if it wasn’t so hurt.

Taking back her hand she pulled the lower half toward the upper. There were a lot of wires and cables that were frayed at the edges. So it was literally ripped apart? Things like that only happened in the middle ages or with gangs. So there was something big enough and strong enough to tare this robot apart? Jade swallowed uneasily at the thought. If this robot was ripped apart then that meant it could happen to her too, or worse to the children. Shaking her head to rid herself of the image of her children being ripped apart like a wet tissue Jade focused on the robot. There didn’t seem to be anything she could do for him, as he was obviously male now that she was closer to him. She would be here with him though, stay until he passed onto the next life.

His slightly confused face met her sad smile, tears brimming in her eyes. He seemed like he would have been a nice robot, unlike Starscream whom she wanted to hit upside the head or worse with his superior attitude. Jade wished she could have known him before this happened. With a gentle smile the male closed his eyes. This didn’t seem fair.

A faint flash of blue to the left just outside of her vision forced her attention away from the dying robot. On her left arm a faint blue light pulsated from around the seams of a panel. Curiously she flicked the panel open, squinting to see past the now bright light. Sitting in the middle of the small pocket was the chipped piece of metallic rock that Kleane had given her during her escape with the children. It pulsed the blue light to the beat of a strong and steady heart. Carefully picking up the shard as if it would explode any second Jade held the small piece between her thumb and index finger in front of her face. It was really pretty if one ignored the blinding factor.

Looking from the shard to the robot next to her Jade paused at a thought. If this little shard could create life, then it should be able to save a life too. Unsure of what to do Jade turned her attention to the robot. Nothing happened when she held the shard near the wounds, but when she held it over his chest a small amount of blue light came from the seams of the panels. Using the faint light the woman found some small latches and unlatched them. The panels on the robot’s chest opened revealing a mass of wires, cables, and, in a metal mount, a blue orb that was weakly pulsing and fading fast. Unsure of the results Jade adjusted her grip on the shard and held it so that the tip gently brushed against the orb. In a flash of blinding light that forced her to close her eyes, the shard reacted to the orb. When she finally was able to open her eyes without pain she found the male’s orb glowing brightly and the cables and wires soldered shut. Closing the chest panels and putting the shard back in her arm pocket, Jade stood. She knew he wasn’t a hundred percent better, but at least now he wouldn’t die since the purple liquid wasn’t leaking out of him anymore.

She crossed to the other side of the alley and peaked around the corners. With not a soul in sight Jade looked back at the robot one last time before taking off in a limping jog down the street.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Jade had managed to make it another three blocks down the road with her limping gait before she was forced to stop. She hadn’t seen another living being since the torn robot in the alley, but she could hear the increasingly annoying and loud sound of fighting mixed with metal on metal banging meaning there were more of those robots around and possibly some human combatants.

Resting against the side of a sturdy looking building Jade gave a pained groan. Her ankle felt like it would snap any second, her body was sore and littered with bullet holes, and her head was hurting so much that it seemed like it would explode. She needed a break before trying to move again. The lone robot on the street closed her eyes as the world seemed to spin around her. Why was she so dizzy? Why did she feel like she needed to throw up?

All of a sudden she heard a high pitched static-like chattering right before she felt something crash onto her chest. Whatever the projectile was it burst painfully once it made contact and a liquid covered her armor. A hiss of pain escaped her lips as the sticky substance dripped into some bullet holes, the small bubbles popping painfully inside the wounds. Forcing her eyes open and fighting back tears she spotted a small, compared to her, green robot with four arms chattering at her angrily. Each of its waving arms looking to be cannons that must have launched the projectile at her. Wearily Jade felt like she was dealing with a toddler during the Terrible Twos.

Whining in pain Jade sank down until she was sitting on the road. Apparently the little robot hadn’t liked that and launched another bullet at her. This time she was hit in the shoulder, she absently noticed that the green robot was shooting soda cans at her. Its high pitched chatter was like a dozen woodpeckers in her head.

“Enough,” she finally snapped at the little thing when it hit her again. “I have no idea why you are attacking me but I won’t stand for it. I’m too tired to deal with you so leave me alone,” her firm voice drifted the still street.

The robot stopped making noise and looked at her in what seemed to be shock. Then it did something that made Jade want to laugh. It turned around and started to walk away, but every few steps it would stop and look over its shoulder at her as if to beg her with its eyes to not make it leave. Really, she had seen this type of trick before and it never worked on her. Once the green robot had turned the corner of the building Jade started counting down from five. Right at zero the little robot came careening around to corner in a flat out run and latched itself onto her good ankle sobbing uncontrollably. Smiling despite herself the woman picked up the crying robot and held it close to her heart. It instantly started to calm down and snuggle closer to the steady thrum of her heart. Poor little thing acted no older than a toddler in a big city all alone. He, now that she could see him up close and tell that he was male, was just looking for attention and someone to protect him.

A slight movement to her right caught her attention, directing it away from the sniffling child in her hand. At the same corner that the green robot had come from was a large robot close to the same height as her. He, as he was clearly male, was black colored and rather bulky like she was, though it looked better on him than it did on her. He blinked big yellow eyes at her and she blinked back. A few small chirps close to the ground drew her eyes toward street level only to find five very small robots at the large one’s feet. Three were skinny, almost skeletal, humanoid robots with a pretty platinum color while one was a grey colored spider-like robot and another, taller than the other four, was a very pretty white color and human shaped.

Blinking again Jade mused how she always seemed to find herself in strange situations. With a gentle smile she held out a hand to them.

“Come join the hug, I’m sure you guys are lonely too,” she spoke softly. She was in no shape to fight the larger one if he proved to be difficult or if he thought she was a threat.

Surprisingly all six launched themselves toward her, the large male being gentler as he had to kneel down and cuddle into her as she wrapped her stretched out arm around his shoulders so that he could be close to the others. They seemed so scared and she didn’t blame them. The noises were loud and scary and being alone just made it worse. The large one seemed to be shaking the most, probably because he was the largest and had been protecting the smaller children. Poor thing.

Suddenly Jade heard gunfire then gasped as new holes formed in her armor, specifically her left arm. Quickly she shoved the smaller children into the large robot’s hands and stood in front of them. Was the large one an adult or was it a child in an adult’s body? Anyway, there at the other corner of the block she was on were the Project M vans that she had _thought_ she had lost. Two humans pointed some sort of large gun at her and before she had time to move it fired a canister which exploded on her chest. A scream of unadulterated agony ripped its way from her throat as the metal on her chest literally melted off, dripping in large metallic red colored drops onto the street. Then she heard the terrified screams of her children. Looking down Jade found the cover for the carrying compartment had been melted away.

The protective programming kicked into overdrive at that point. Vaguely the young woman was aware that she had activated her shoulder cannons and fired at the humans after blocking the sight from all the children. Unsure of whether she had killed them or not, Jade grabbed the large child’s, he had to be a child, hand and ran again. She needed to protect all of the children. If Project M got a hold of any of them then there was no telling how much pain they would suffer.

Turning a random corner Jade skidded to a stop, throwing the hand covering the compartment out to the side to stay up right when the large child ran into her. In front of her was another robot, but this was certainly an adult and definitely functional. It was male, taller than her by a good amount, and painted with what looked like a police car design. His red eyes took in the sight of all of them before he opened his mouth.

“What the pit?


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

Barricade stared at the group before him. He had seen the Allspark activate so he had been looking for any newly sparked human machines. He did not, however, except to be almost run over by damaged femme tugging a large mech and several smaller Cybertronians. There were even seeker sparklings in the femme’s damaged sparkling chamber. Were all of them created by the Allspark just now? Was that what the explosion was? No, the femme was the most damaged so she couldn’t have been newly sparked.

With a snarl the femme pointed her energy cannons at him, ready to defend the new life forms. Instantly the Decepticon raised his servos in surrender. He may not know the femme, but he wasn’t stupid enough to push his luck.

“Easy, Femme. I’m not going to hurt anybot,” he spoke slow and firm. Programs were running in his processor trying to find a way to calm her down.

She snarled at him again, but didn’t shoot. Good, she wasn’t completely out of her processor from all the damage she had sustained. Seriously, Barricade may not have been in a lot of the major battles of the war, trying to keep his team alive, but he had seen enough offline frames to know that the femme should be dead by now. What the frag had she been through to get that kind of damage?

“I won’t hurt you or them.” He took a cautious step forward, being careful not to step too far. She snarled at him again, her derma pulling back to show her denta at him and the glow of her cannons brightened. “I swear on my spark, Femme, that I won’t hurt any of you. What’s your designation?”

For a moment he thought she wouldn’t believe him and just shoot him offline right then and there. She starred at him for what seemed like forever with bright blue optics that seemed to stare into his very spark. He wouldn’t blame her if she did shoot him; he was known for gaining someone’s trust and then crushing it for a good laugh as long as they weren’t he teammates.

“Jade,” she grunted out.

Venting softly in relief the Decepticon tried to smile in a nonthreatening way. “Good to meet you Jade, I’m Barricade.” 

* * *

Jade warily watched the large male robot. Barricade, how fitting considering his paint job looked like a police cruiser. Just because she knew his name didn’t mean that she would trust him with the safety of the children or herself though. A very familiar purple face like symbol stared at her making her defenses rise. That meant that this robot knew Starscream, possibly worked closely with him.

The program in her mind started running possibilities of this robot being a threat. Was it best to run or stay? Was she still in danger of Project M finding her? Would she run into another robot if she ran? What were the chances of her coming in contact with the robot that tore apart the silver one in the alley?

There were too many variables and too many options.

“How’d you get so damaged?” Barricade questioned her, bringing her away from the spinning questions in her mind.

For a few seconds she debated telling him the answer. From what the woman had gathered from Starscream these robots didn’t like humans. Neutral answers were best for now until she could judge this male. “Does it matter? All that matters is that the children are safe,” she snapped.

He blinked at her with red eyes before he rudely pointed at the large child asking, “He’s a sparkling?”

From dealing with Starscream Jade had worked out that the term sparkling meant a child. “Yes he is and it’s rude to point,” she bristled.

Instantly the adult male of the group dropped his finger as if it had been burned. Smart man…male…robot…whatever.

“Alright, sorry. What are you doing here with sparklings?” he questioned.

“Escaping. What about you?” she shot back.

“I’m following the orders of Lord Megatron.” There was that name again. This Megatron must be the leader of these robots with the purple symbol. Vaguely Jade recalled a red symbol on the torn robot so that meant that meant there were two different “races” of robots and from the sounds of things they were fighting to the death about something. Had she gotten involved in some sort of civil war?

A slight twinge of pain from the damaged compartment broke through the fog of protective programming followed closely by a wave of dizziness. She felt herself stumble to the side and quickly passed the named children off to the largest one before something worse could happen. Worse did happen; there was a sharp snapping sound and pain radiated from her ankle. Thinking quickly Jade focused her movements so she ended up leaning on the building to her right, keeping her weight off of her left ankle. Not daring to move, Jade placed a calming hand on the large child’s arm and hummed softly to calm the smaller ones who were chirping at her in distress.

 **“Carrier, please be alright!”** Labtech wailed at her, little tears falling down his cheeks.

“I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine.”   Jade tried to ignore the pain washing over her. So much pain; it wasn’t the worst pain she had been through, but it was still horribly painful.

“Hey there, you’re not going to offline on me are you?” A metal hand landed on her shoulder forcing her attention onto the robot connected to it.

“Fine, ‘m fine. Jus’ need t’rest,” she murmured, her words slurring slightly. Turning so her back was against the supportive wall she slide down till she was sitting, ignoring the scraping sound of her metal body against the cinderblock wall. 

* * *

 

Programming screamed loudly in Barricade’s processor as the femme slowly shuttered her optics while starring at the ground. All of the sparklings where clicking and whirling in concern, one specifically was crying out in Cybertronian to her yet she seemed to not hear them. Panic raised its ugly head in his circuitry. The sparklings needed her and they were the future of his race.

Just then there was a loud crash. The Commander of the Race Track Patrol looked around the corner just in time to see the human squishy designated Samuel Witwicky push the Allspark into Megatron’s spark. A blinding light filled his vision and he quickly ducked back into the alley. When he was finally able to see again he focused his attention on the sparklings and femme. The sparklings were focusing solely on Jade and the femme seemed to be fighting to stay out of stasis lock. He had only moments to decide what to do.

Venting harshly Barricade bent his tall frame down and picked the femme up in a way that the Internet called “Bridal Style”.

 **“Where are you going with Carrier? You can’t take her!”** the sparkling who could speak screeched at him from the relative safety of the large sparkling’s servos.

“All of you are coming too. I’m taking her to a medic,” Barricade responded crisply.

He eased his way out of their hiding place, looking over his shoulder to make sure that the large sparkling was following. Cautiously the Decepticon made his way toward the gathering Autobots. The moment his presence was registered was pretty obvious. Ratchet was burning holes into his armor with his stare, demanding answers to his unspoken questions. Next to notice was unfortunately Ironhide who pointed both of his cannons at his and the large sparkling’s heads.

“What do you want, Decepticon?” he snarled out, ignoring the scared chirping of the sparklings and Ratchet’s outraged noises.

“Put those away before I tear them from your arms,” Jade snarled as she pushed herself out of the Decepticon’s arms to stand on her own peds, which must have been painful since her left ankle strut had broken.

“Make me femme,” the warrior challenged.

Barricade held up his servos in surrender before pulling the sparklings away from the standoff. Ironhide was a dumbaft to piss off a femme with sparklings. He should get that coding fixed if he wanted to stay online; if he survived the femme’s wrath that is.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

There was pain, so much pain that all Jade wanted to do was curl up in a ball and let the blissful feeling of falling unconscious consume her. Not yet though, there was still danger. She didn’t remember when Barricade picked her up or when he carried her toward what must have been the ending scene to the battle, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the large black robot had pointed one of his cannon hands at the children. He was a danger and needed to be eliminated.

When the male refused to lower the cannons, having the audacity to focus one on her and the other on Barricade who was leading the children to safety, Jade snapped. Her world faded as she launched herself at the aggressive male while his head was turned away. Her vision turned black, she could hear nothing but frightening static after her first primal roar, and all sensation was lost so she had no clue if she was even moving. Her only thought was protecting the children. 

* * *

To say Ratchet was surprised that Barricade had come near the group was an understatement. The medic’s astonishment grew into awe as he noticed the damaged femme cradled gently in the Decpticon’s arms and the large mech following behind. The large mech had no faction symbol, but Ratchet couldn’t tell if he was a neutral or not. The femme however was more concerning. From where he was standing he could make out a dented helm, damaged ankle strut, and a melted off piece of armor that was supposed to go over the sparkling chamber.

He was about to charge forward and start working on the femme while drilling the Decepticon for answers, the mech would cooperate if he wanted to stay undamaged, when Ironhide noticed the group. Understandably, Ironhide would be jumpy after just finishing a battle and so his cannons automatically pointed at the heads of both oncoming mechs. Of course his actions brought the attention of Optimus and Sam. Never in his entire life had Ratchet wanted to hit the weapon specialist so hard that he would be unable to function for at least a stellar cycle.

Suddenly the femme, which he had thought was in stasis lock, stood on her own peds making him want to force her off her damaged leg. She snarled at Ironhide in a way that made Ratchet’s medic programming run on overdrive. She was severely injured and should be in stasis lock, not threatening Ironhide. Glancing at Barricade and the other mech, who looked confused and worried, Ratchet noticed several little forms in the unknown mech’s servos and a proverbial light bulb went off. If that mech was holding sparklings then the femme’s sparkling protection programming would be active. With the way she was acting Ratchet had to say it was a very overactive program that was running.

Just as he was going to intervene the femme launched herself at the perceived threat with a furious roar when Ironhide turned his attention away from her. Ratchet was really getting tired of his actions being cut off right before he went to do them.

Ironhide’s head whipped back toward the femme just as she landed on him. The two crashed down onto the street, creating an Ironhide shaped crater in the pavement below. Ironhide grunted as his helm bounced on the cracked pavement. The femme however seemed unfazed by the fall and started to literally tear at any of the weapon specialist’s exposed wires with her bare servos. With a snarl Ironhide tossed the femme away from him before standing. The femme crashed into the wall of a building, falling through the weak structure to land inside. Growling Ironhide tried to fire his cannons only to find they refused to work. Ratchet automatically knew that the femme had damaged the circuitry needed for the cannons to operate properly.   Slightly stunned that he was unable to use his cannons Ironhide prowled toward to hole in the building. Before he could get to the femme, she came flying out of the hole with two blades that were bent sharply in the middle drawn and ready to strike. Quickly Ironhide was on the retreat, dodging as many swipes from the deadly blades as possible. All too soon the large mech was backed against the wall of a building with the femme posed in front of him, her arms crossed so that if she moved even a little the blades in her servos would slice through the vulnerable neck cables of her captured prey.

Enough was enough. This nonsense needed to stop before Ironhide was killed by the femme, the femme got herself killed, or one of the sparklings that had been calling out to her the entire fight got away from Barricade and got hurt themselves. Stealthily Ratchet maneuvered himself behind the snarling femme. Her helm whipped toward him with a fiery glare right as he pinched the precise neck cable he was looking for. Then her optics offlined and Ratchet caught her as her frame fell toward the street. Ironhide vented with relief as the blades fell to the ground. He would never admit to the fear he showed in his optics when he looked at the femme.

“Thanks Ratchet. Now all we have to do is get the Con and we can-”

“ _We_ will do nothing of the sort. _You_ will go find Bee and Jazz before I reconfigure you into a toaster,” Ratchet growled, interrupting the mech in front of him.

Not wanting to face the wrath of Ratchet, Ironhide fled from the area to look for their comrades. It was time to carefully choose his battles and he refused to fight with the medic. Gently laying the femme on a level area of blacktop he turned his attention to a shadow that had appeared over him. Looking up and behind him he found the large unknown mech and sure enough a servofull of sparklings, though some looked like they may be minicons. Ratchet blinked at the different frames and wondered where all of them had come from.

**“You will fix Carrier, right? You will make her better and she will take care of all of us, right? You have to fix her, we need her!”** one of the seekerlings wailed in Cybertronian, tracks of leaking energon falling from the little mech’s blue optics.

“I will try.” He couldn’t give them a straight answer until he was able to fully diagnose the femme and to do that he needed a medbay. Looking up at Optimus he commed the Autobot leader;

:: I need to get her to a medbay, even a temporary one. She will offline soon from this damage. Not even patching her will help at this point. ::

:: I will speak to Lennox and see how fast we can get you to one suited for your needs with supplies. Do what you can to help her survive. :: The Leader of the Autobots paused for a moment before speaking again, :: She was damaged by humans while trying to protect the sparklings, wasn’t she. ::

:: I fear that is most likely the case, no Cybertronian other than Megatron would dare harm a sparkling and even he would have second thoughts regarding that now that there are so few Cybertronians left. :: the medic reasoned as he quickly took pieces of medical patch metal out of his subspace and welded it over the wounds. He would not lose this femme after losing Jazz already.

Glancing up at the sound of movement, Ratchet saw the large mech sit down on the other side of the femme. Within the little group in his servos there were several different frames of different colors and four uncolored seekerlings, one of which was a femme trying to desperately break away from the large seekerling mech holding her back. It seemed that Primus had blessed the next generation with a medic. He would have to see about training her when she reached her second frame.

**“Carrier,”** the little mech seekerling whimpered as the medic continued to work. The frightened and desolate look on his little face plates forced Ratchet to work faster. This femme was needed by these sparklings; he would slag himself if he didn’t try his hardest to save her. No sparkling was going to be without their carrier if he had anything to say about it. Never again.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

**“Is Carrier alrigh’?”**

**“I think so.”**

**“Ya don’ sound sure.”**

**“I have limited knowledge; Ratchet won’t let me learn more. He says I’m too young.”**

**“Bu’ ya said-”**

**“Enough! All we can do is wait for Carrier to come out of stasis and all will be fine again.”**

**“It would be easier to stand the wait if the other adults would leave us at Carrier’s side. It has gotten to the point where we have to take shifts with the other group so all of us can spend equal time with her.”**

Small child-like voices broke through the oppressive black fog that had been surrounding Jade for who knew how long. Most weren’t familiar, though it felt like she should know them from somewhere. One voice, however, was very familiar. It sounded like Labtech if the long explanation and justification of his actions were anything to go by.

The voices were waiting for her. If Labtech was with them then the other voices had to be his siblings. Her children needed her so she couldn’t stay here floating through this black fog like sludge any longer. Determination burned through her very being as she fought against the think blackness had on her. It tightened its hold on her for a split second where Jade feared she would not break free, then it seemed to throw her out of the darkness with so much force that she crashed back into her body with almost crushing force.

Gasping at the uncomfortable sensation the woman jerked up to a sitting position, eyes snapping open. The room around her was large with blindingly white walls, the smell of some sort of antibacterial substance floated in the air and there were several strange and frightening machines. For a panicked moment Jade thought that she was back in the hands of Project M and that Barricade had given her to them.

**“Carrier!”** four extremely excited voices cheered from where her head must have been laying.

Turning her head to look over her shoulder Jade gave a gasp at seeing her babies running toward her on the large metal slab like table she was currently occupying. They made it within a few feet of her before she swept them up into her hands and cradled them close to her chest not willing to let them go. They chattered at her as she checked them over for any damage. They seemed to be a bit taller, maybe by an inch or so, but other than that they seemed healthy. There were no dents or scratches, and the dirt that she had last seen on them had been washed off so their armor was nice and shiny. Seeing her children safe eased the panic that Project M might have caught them by just a little bit.

There was a large door off to the right which slid open to reveal a large robot she had never seen before. The robot was male, bulky looking, and painted the annoying color that might be called neon yellow green that she personally thought looked like recently vomited bile. He blinked blue eyes at her and the children before he huffed and walked towards them. There was a slight uplift to his lips so Jade cautiously guessed that he was amused at the situation.

“I see you’re finally awake. You had all of us worried, especially the sparklings. You stayed in stasis longer than I thought you would, and that’s saying something since I had to put Jazz back together back together. Him being online was a Primus given miracle in itself,” the horribly colored male rambled.

Jade stared at him, listening to him list off all the things that he had fixed on her. The list was surprisingly long; had she really been that injured? Jade turned her attention back to her children. Labtech was firmly latched onto her quietly sobbing his blue eyes out in relief; he must have separation anxiety and this ordeal had to have caused him immense trauma. Healingblade was gently probing the seam where new metal had replaced what looked like a previous melted on patch, her watchful red eyes gauging if her exploration was causing pain. Then there was the blue eyed Skymaze and the red eyed Trapmaster who were equally attached to her and not willing to let go. It seemed as though she would be having the children with her constantly until they were sure she wouldn’t disappear on them again.

“You’re not listening to me are you?” The male’s voice broke through her cluttered mind.

Turning her head to look at the male, Jade saw him watching her with an exasperated look on his face.

“I’m sorry; you lost me after listing off the injuries that you fixed. I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I feel my children are more important. Where am I and where are the other children?” Jade launched off. The children she had saved in the city might be worried about her as well.

The male huffed in annoyance. “You are on an American military base on the island Diego Garcia. First of all, I will be escorting you around the base until I can be sure you won’t go back into stasis.   The sparklings sparked by the Allspark are currently being watched by Jazz and Ironhide which is where those four are supposed to be.” He pointed at the children cradled in her hands.

Gingerly Jade scooted off the table and stood on the floor. The male was at her side in a matter of seconds startling her so bad that she jumped away from him and the table. Gaining her footing Jade nervously watched the male who watched her in return.

“Easy Femme, you’re still weak.”

“How could I possibly trust you?”

“Damn Decepticons,” he muttered. “I’m the Autobot medic Ratchet. You should know I won’t hurt you,” he groused

“How could I know you? This is the first time I’ve met you,” Jade returned.

Ratchet blinked before he had a blue light run over her person. Jade flinched away from the cold feeling it left behind. The medic hummed as he pulled some sort of tablet like object out of nowhere.

“The scan doesn’t show any processor damage and I didn’t see anything wrong when I was fixing you. So what could be the cause of the lack of information,” he muttered more so to himself.

Jade felt her left eye twitch as he continued muttering as if she wasn’t in the same room.

“I am in the room you know. It’s rude to talk about someone while they’re in the same room,” she growled out at him. The hostile tone in her voice must have made him pause. “Anyway, I want to see the other children so either you show me the way or these four will show me.” Jade gestured to the four winged children in her hands.

“Alright alright, I’ll show you the way.” Ratchet marched through the door with Jade following behind him, matching his brisk pace. “Femme is in stasis for almost half a stellar cycle and she starts acting like she owns the place,” he muttered.

“I don’t own the place, my name isn’t “femme,” and stop talking about me while you know that I can hear you. It’s rude and I don’t want the kids to learn those habits,” Jade snarled at him getting a glare in return. “Don’t give me that look; if you don’t want a response then don’t speak out loud.”

Growling in annoyance Ratchet turned his attention to opening the door in front of them. It opened outwards letting in a bright stream of sunlight and the distinct feel of heavy humidity. Stepping out onto the sun baked tarmac Jade blinked at the sudden onslaught of noise and activity. Humans ran around in all manner of army uniforms of civilian clothes doing all sorts of things, but what caught her attention was a group of large robots trying to calm down the children from the city. The large one was wrestling roughly with the large black robot that had threatened her in the city. The green four armed child was shooting any thing that came too close to him and the other five were running around avoiding getting caught by the much larger robots.

With a growl Jade stomped past Ratchet towards the chaos placing the four named children on her shoulders. The smallest ones saw her first and ran toward her and she scooped them up into her hands easily without breaking her stride. Several of the robots paused when she stormed past them and scooped up the suddenly cooing and calm green colored child. With all of the smaller children either on her shoulders or in her hand she marched toward the wrestling pair and stood over them with her unoccupied hand clenched at her side.

“That’s quite enough, both of you will stop this instant or I will personally punish you both,” her firm voice drifted over the suddenly silent tarmac. The child stopped and pushed the large adult away from him and hurried to her side. He paused for a moment before gently hugging her. He pulled away taking all of the smaller children into his hands so she could deal with the angry male robot he had been wrestling with that was now charging towards them.

“Where the frag do you get off, Femme?” he shouted at her which resulted in her punching him in the face. Having not expected the strike the male stumbled back and placed a hand at his face. He looked at the woman in shock as she stomped towards him seeming to radiate anger.

“You listen here you brute; I will not have the children learning any of your bad habits if I can help it. On top of that, you were being too rough with a distraught child that was acting out in the only way he knew how.   I’ll tell you this once and once only. You are not allowed near any of the children without my permission or me being there with you. Am I understood?” she growled at him while somehow looming over him even though he was taller than her by a fair amount.

“Why should I listen to you?” The male’s voice would have come out strong if there hadn’t been a small tremble accompanying it.

With a glint in her eyes she leaned in close to his face knowing it would make him even more nervous.

“I’m their mother and when it concerns them my word is law.” With a slightly sinister smile Jade turned sharply on her heels and fussed over the children she hadn’t seen when she had first woken up.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Using her fussing over the children as a cover, Jade took stock of the other robots near her. There was a ridiculously tall male that looked like he could squish her in one step with blue armor that had fed flames in random places. Really, flames were so cliché. There was the large black robot who was a bulky male that if he was human he would look like someone with extremely large toned muscles. There was the silver male she had seen in the ally during her frantic running. He was in one piece this time and standing next to Ratchet shaking his head as the medic scolded the black robot for upsetting her. The last robot was a yellow color and little taller than the silver one, again male like the rest of the robots around. He was looking between her and the grouped robots that were talking in low voices so she couldn’t hear them; she still heard everything they said. After what seemed to be a long internal debate the yellow male started to slowly make his way over to Jade and the children.

When he was within an arm’s reach he stopped and watched her as she brushed dirt off of the large child and fussed over the little wounds all over his armor. Radio static filled the air before the sound of a small girl asking politely for attention floated into the air. Jade turned partially toward him and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yes?” she asked in a slightly exasperated tone as if he was disturbing her quality time with the children.

He shifted from foot to foot before the static returned then cut into a song she remembered hearing from online at one point. “Sweet little bumblebee.”

It took her a few seconds to piece together what was happening. He talked through the radio and he was trying to tell her his name. “You’re name is Bumblebee?”

He nodded with a happy smile on his face before pointing at her as if to ask her name.

“Jade, my name is Jade.” She smiled up at him as he was a little taller than her. She looked at the children before deciding now was as good a time as any to name the rest of them. She pointed to each of the winged children in order of height, “These are Skymaze, Labtech, Trapmaster, and Healingblade.” She paused then pointed at the large child that looked like an adult, “He’s Sheildstriker;” the green four armed one, “he’s Carbonation;” the white female, “she’s Cheatcode;” the three skeletal females, “Chatter, Screenshot, Dial;” the spider-like male, “and he is Locator.”

Jade smiled as the newly named children started talking excitedly to each other in their clicking language. Bumblebee smiled and waved at the excitable group. Jade watched the yellow robot for a few seconds as he interacted with Sheildstriker who had started poking at him curiously. Bumblebee was gentle with him, but not to the point of babying the large child.

“Hey there little lady.”

Jade nearly jumped out of her armored skin at the voice that came from right behind her. Spinning around she swung a fist at the one that startled her. A hand caught hers with a resounding clang that rang through the air.

“Woah! Easy there, Girl. I don’ mean any harm to ya!” The silver male said as he held onto her fist with a firm grasp.

“Don’ sneak up on me like tha’!” Jade gasped out, her accent breaking out due to the fright. She may have been safe for a long time according to the medic but for all she knew he could have just been lying to her.

“Easy there; sorry. I didn’ realize ya’d be so jumpy.” The male let go of her hand and held both of his up in surrender. “Just wanted ta tell ya that we have a hanger ready for ya,” he told her.

Huffing Jade put her hands on her hips in frustration. They wanted her to stay with them and since she had no idea what was going on or how to leave the island so she had no choice but to accept. With a growl she turned and picked up the smaller children and motioned for Sheildstriker to follow. She would follow their rules for now.

The pair walked away from the large group toward a group of hangers set off to the side.

“Normally we’d have ya stay with everyone else, but we thought it would be better if ya had your own so the little ones could be with ya too,” the male explained as they stopped at one on the larger than normal hangers. With a grin he opened the double doors wide with exaggerated gestures. Rolling her eyes at his antics, Jade took stock of the large space. There was an area filled with what looked like blankets and pillows of different colors off in the back. A stack of barrels off to one wall that looked sealed with some sort of symbol on them that Jade didn’t recognize. The lights were high up so none of the children or her would bump their heads on them and they lit the entire enclosed space. There were no windows, only one door which she was currently at, and what looked like security cameras in the corners.

“Three things. Why is there no secondary exit in case of emergencies? Why are there no windows? And why are there cameras?” Jade rattled off what she didn’t like about the situation.

The silver male scratched his head and looked at her through his blue visor. “Well it’s a hanger; we just modified it to suit our purposes. The cameras were put up ‘cause the sparklin’s were placed here and we needed to make sure they were alrigh’ with no one in the immediate area,” he explained.

Jade grunted in response. She was getting tired and that soft area in the back looked very inviting. Yet one thing was bothering her about the male and the thoughts spinning in her head wouldn’t leave until she got answers.

Turning to the male she asked, “Do you remember me?”

He tilted his head to the side and frowned a bit. “You’re the femme that Ratchet has been fixin’ for the past half a stellar cycle.”

Jade figured he wouldn’t remember her; he had been close to death when they had met. What she hadn’t expected was for the distinct pang of hurt that raced into her heart at his answer.

“Oh, well I’m Jade.” Jade forced out as calmly as she could.

“Nice ta meet ya Jade, I’m Jazz. I gotta go see the Bossbot, so I’ll leave ya to do whatever.” With a wave he walked off not noticing the hurt expression in Jade’s eyes.

With a depressed sigh Jade turned back to the hanger only to see Sheildstriker playfully wrestling with Bumblebee. Laughing slightly Jade joined the two on the play area and let the other children run around, though Healingblade and Labtech stayed firmly attached to her.

* * *

Jazz felt like an idiot. He was a sub-commander and the head of special ops for crying out loud and he had just lied to the prettiest slagging femme he had see in almost forever! She had saved his spark and he couldn’t even give her the decency of thanking her properly.

Jazz hit his head on the wall of the hallway he was standing in. Primus he was a stupid fragger.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

* * *

Jade gave a little snort as she woke up. Blinking she wondered where she was before the previous day came crashing into her mind. Waking up from a coma, meeting the medic, punching the black robot for being rough with Sheildstriker, naming the children, playing in their hanger, and then bundling into a large pile to sleep. Groaning Jade turned her head to glare at the knocking coming from the hanger door. Who in their right mind would try and wake up the children?

Carefully the woman extracted herself from the pile of children. There was a brief moment when Tech and Healing fussed a bit, but thankfully they settled back down. Stretching until she heard a sharp pop from her spine, Jade groaned in bliss as the tension oozed away while she approached the door. She pulled the door open just enough to see who was there.

“Yes?” The woman tried to control the urge to slam the door shut and wake up the majority of the humans sleeping, or the children.

“Ya seen Bumblebee?” the black robot grunted, obviously not happy to be near her either.

Jade paused and turned to look at the pile of robots. There was a yellow arm draped over Sheildstriker and Maze had found a convenient sleeping spot on a yellow foot. She turned back to the male, “He’s in here sleeping with the kids.”

He huffed and crossed his arms. “Well Optimus needs him.”

“You want to try digging him out of the pile? Be my guest.” Jade opened the door wider to show him that there was indeed a pile of sleeping bodies.

He groaned then shook his head. Obviously he came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth trying.

Jade leaned against the door and crossed her arms. She barely knew Bee, as she had taken to calling him, but he seemed so tired that it would be cruel to wake him up.

“How important is this thing? I could fill in for Bee and tell him what happened when he wakes up.” The male looked at her as if she had grown another head. He paused, as if he was talking to someone else in his head like how Starscream had. With a nod he motioned for her to follow before walking away. With a frown the woman followed after closing the door gently behind her. Apparently he was too good to give her a verbal response.

Together in silence the two ambled over the tarmac toward the largest building in the area. Surprisingly, to Jade at least because of the late hour, there was a decent amount of activity. There were a few guards walking by a fence, several humans in civilian clothes playing basketball under spot lights, and there were multiple other humans in groups talking or doing whatever. A few glanced up at the two robots, but went back to whatever task they were doing. Some, however, looked and continued to stare. Jade knew those kinds of stares very well; they were eyes that judged without remorse. With a stern look around her, she made sure her shoulders were pulled back and her stride was strong. There was nothing for her to be ashamed of; aside from once being human and then turning into a robot, but that wasn’t her fault!

Just as Jade was contemplating starting a conversation with the male in her company, said male entered the building that had been their destination. Huffing softly, Jade followed after the temperamental male. Really, this guy was annoying almost to the point where she wanted Starscream’s company instead. Thinking of the flier brought all of their interactions to the front of her mind causing a shudder to run up her spine. Never mind, this guy was better than that arrogant prick.

“Good evening, Jade,” the largest male called from the other side of the building.

The building was spacious on the inside with catwalks running around leading from the floor to close to the ceiling. The robots that she had seen earlier were all gathered at the end opposite to her.

“Good evening,” she greeted as she swiftly made her way across the open space, but watching out for the few humans scurrying about.

“Jazz told me of your thoughts on your quarters. I have put in a request for suitable changes, but as the entire base is being remodeled and new parts being constructed, it may take some time.”

Jade pulled to a stop next to Jazz who shifted from foot the foot and smiled at her. She smiled back for a moment before turning back to the obvious leader.

“I can survive with it for however long it takes. I just don’t like the idea of being trapped in a box.” It brought back too many memories of her last moments as a human.

“Understandable.” The leader turned to her escort, “Where is Bumblebee?”

“He’s sleepin’ with the sparklin’s,” the brute grunted out.

“He seemed rather tired so I thought I would come in his place,” Jade explained gently.

With a nod the large male turned his attention to the small humans on the catwalk that was level about where his chest would be. He seemed to be about to speak to them when Jazz jumped up.

“Yo Bossbot, Jade here doesn’ know everyone! Shouldn’ we do introductions?” His accent rang out. Jade sheepishly scratched at her cheek as all eyes landed on her, though she did feel happy that Jazz was looking out for her.

“I agree with Jazz, Optimus. She has some kind of glitch that has replaced her memory files with fabricated ones,” Ratchet spoke up from his place across from her.

“I do not have a glitch,” Jade growled at the medic. He had been muttering about a supposed glitch she just had to have the entire time she was in his presence earlier. If she was interpreting the meaning right he was saying that she had an illness or mental deficiency.

“You have no recollection of even a mention of us. There is no other reason other than a glitch,” he growled back.

“How could I have memories of any of you? I was born on Earth!”

“How could that be? The AllSpark could not have been on this planet that long ago.”

“How old do you think I am? And what the hell is an AllSpark?”

“See? That question right there supports my point. You have a glitch!”

“I don’ have a glitch!” Jade snapped, her accent showing again.

“Enough!” Both medic and woman turned to look at the large robot before huffing, crossing their arms, and turning their faces away from each other. “We will deal with one thing at a time. Jade, I am Optimus Prime, Leader of the Autobots. You already know Ratchet and Jazz. This is Ironhide, my Weapons Specialist.” Said male grunted in response. “Now, we know Ratchet believes you have a glitch and his reasoning behind it. I think the best thing is for you to tell us everything you remember until the battle.”

Jade fidgeted a bit. Could she really tell them? She had told Starscream and he had basically laughed in her face. Would they believe her?

“Promise me that ya won’ laugh.” She received nods and taking a deep breath she regaled her life’s story. There wasn’t too much detail, couldn’t have them using it against her just in case now could she. By the end she had told them as much as she could, which took about an hour. Within that time Bumblebee had joined them, the children still sleeping soundly in the hanger supposedly, and heard a good portion of the tale. Nervously the woman waited for a reaction while looking at the ground. The silence was suffocating and unnerving to the point that Jade was rubbing her left arm, a habit she had when in uncomfortable situations.

Suddenly Jade found herself wrapped in the yellow arms that belonged solely to Bumblebee who was whirling and clicking in distress. His reaction seemed to be a catalyst for the rest of the group. Optimus seemed to sink into himself in thought though he kept his sorrowful eyes on her. Ironhide started ranting and looked very close to pulling out his cannons and start shooting. Ratchet launched himself toward her running the scan over her again and talking about possible tests and repercussions of her entire ordeal. Jazz just seemed to stand there in shock, but shacking in what looked like anger. They believed her, somehow these beings from a different world believed her unbelievable story.

“Y-you believe me?” Jade questioned in shock.

Optimus came out of his thoughts and focused his attention on the only female among them. “We received information from a shut down organization called Sector Seven about two human weeks after we made this our base of operations. It detailed all experiments that the organization had taken part in. One such project referenced another organization known as Project M. Records were vague, but Sector Seven gave supplies to Project M in order to complete a project.” He paused as if unsure if her should tell her more, “You seem to be the product of Project M’s research, Jade. I am afraid that there is no way to return you to your human form. At the moment Project M is on the run as the government is looking to shut them down as it did with Sector Seven.”

Jade felt her insides freeze into solid blocks of magically reinforced ice. Deep down she had always known that she would never be human again. To actually hear that conclusion; to be told straight to her face that she would never be able to return to the life she once had suddenly made it all so frighteningly real.

A hand landed on her shoulder causing her to look up into the blurry image of the blue visor that belonged to Jazz. Why was he burry? Were her eyes tearing?

“I’m sorry, Jade. Bu’ we’re here for ya. Both you and da sparklin’s,” he tried to comfort her.

Disappointed that she had become so emotional, Jade nodded. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes to fight off the tears. There was no going back, she was stuck like this. Now that she knew without a doubt that there was no hope, she had to move on and accept that she would live as a giant robot for the rest of her life.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down before the meeting could continue the way it was originally supposed to. By the time the things were ready to continue Jade had gotten control over herself and thankfully no tears had fallen from her eyes. Bumblebee still clung to her even as he gave his report, apparently not wanting to let go for a second. She had to deny Jazz’s offer of leaving the meeting because of the yellow male. She was patting one of the large yellow arms around her shoulder when she heard a familiar name mentioned.

“How do you know Sam?” she questioned while crossing her arms over her chest, which Bee made very difficult.

“Samuel helped us during the battle. He destroyed Megatron using the Allspark,” Ratchet explained.

“How do you know Samuel Witwicky?” Optimus questioned.

“He’s my cousin; the one I was going to visit before all this happened.” Jade gestured to herself knowing the point would get across. There was a silent pause for a moment before Jade sighed at them. Really, it was a shocking situation, she should know, but their reactions were over dramatic. “Look, I don’t care what you’re all thinking. Just keep Sammy safe and don’t let him know about me,” she snipped. Seriously, she felt like she was back in middle school for crying out loud.

“Are ya sure ya don’ want ‘im ta know?” Jazz asked gently. At least Jazz kept his head this time.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Sammy is just like his parents. He’d worry himself needlessly and waste his time trying to fix what can’t be fixed.” Jade sighed, “And last time we talked it ended in a big argument and me punching him in the face. I doubt he’ll want to be bothered with me if he remembers that.” Jade winced at the memory. That had _not_ been one of her better decisions. That was why she had been going to visit him; to apologize and start over again. In her defense he was being an idiot at the time it happened.

“We will respect your decision as it is yours make,” Optimus said solemnly. The woman got a distinct feeling that he didn’t approve. Too bad, she knew her cousin and he didn’t.

The meeting continued on. Ratchet reported on the overall health of the soldiers and what he still needed in his medbay. Ironhide proposed training sessions with humans to promote teamwork and to possibly calm down the more jumpy soldiers. Jazz reported on the progress of their security and creating a computer mainframe for said security. Two humans standing patiently on the catwalk caught Jade’s attention. One was a brown haired white male and a black male; both looking to be the same age and were military personal. Jade couldn’t make out much detail on them as they were small and pretty far from her, yet they were there for a purpose. Wait, had they been here the enter time? If they had then they knew about what happened to her. Damn, she didn’t want that getting out to the humans.

Optimus finally turned to the two humans, Captain William Lennox and Sergeant Robert Epps. They reported on the soldiers, training, and several other things from the human side of the base. There was a moment when Lennox gave her a quick glance that she responded to with a glare. There was pity in that glance, but she would be damned if she put up with pity.

By the end of the meeting Jade was tired both mentally and emotionally and her feet were hurting from standing so long. With a sigh she slipped out of the hanger while the talk became more social than business. Joining the children for a nice sleep sounded so good right now. 

* * *

 

Jazz watched as Jade silently snuck out of the hanger with a stealthy Bumblebee right behind her. He felt sorry for Jade, but he could tell she didn’t want pity. Pit, he would have snapped at Will and Epps for those looks if he was Jade. The amazing control she had over her emotions was astonishing. She had been so close to leaking, crying he reminded himself, but had fought it off and stayed in the meeting. Her control may be what was causing Bumblebee to attach himself to her side. She did seem like good carrier material, especially since all of the sparklings listened to her. The fact that Bee had spent hardly any time with femmes because of the war could be making him see the only nurturing femme as a substitute carrier, like baby animals imprinting on the first thing they see making that their parental unit.

“Jazz, what do you think we should do about Jade?” Ratchet’s vocals broke through his thoughts. Flickering his optics Jazz turned his attention to those still left from the meeting.

“Let ‘er be. She needs ta adjust ta da information she go’ tanight. An’ don’ pity ‘er,” the Special Ops Autobot directed at the only humans of the group. They had the decency to look ashamed of themselves. With a nod he turned his attention back to Ratchet. “Why ya askin’?”

“I’m concerned that the shock of tonight and the resurfacing of her ordeal may have adverse effects on her. That and she is very unhealthy, most likely because she has been consuming very little and using more energon than she has in her,” Ratchet summarized. Ah, there was that mother hen trait that the humans gossiped about. Now that phrase made sense.

“I am sure if you explain to Jade the importance of taking care of herself then she will be amiable to listening to you. She seems to be a very level headed femme especially since she has lasted as long as she has on her own with sparklings,” Optimus spoke

“I think we should worry about Project M and the Decepticons still out there, like Barricade,” Ironhide growled. Jazz nodded with him, both were large threats.

“Do we know what has happened to Barricade after he left Jade and the sparklings in our care?” Optimus asked.

“He’s dropped off the map like the other Decepticons. No telling when any of them will crop up again. But we have people looking for both groups,” Will spoke up from his position.

Jazz couldn’t help but snarl in his head at the thought of the Decepticons. If it hadn’t been for them than Jade would have met the Autobots first. But she hadn’t met any Autobots and it was Barricade that saved her spark. The small silver mech could say this, that even though Barricade was an aft and worthy of the pit he at least wasn’t sparkless when Jade and the sparklings needed help. The Deception had stayed with them for a decacycle at a temporary base helping take care of the sparklings while Ratchet tried to keep Jade’s spark from going out. He would stop in twice a day to check on her, telling her what the sparklings were doing when Ratchet wasn’t hovering, and interestingly enough ignored the humans as much as possible. Truth be told everyone was happy when he left after finding out that Jade was on the mend. 

* * *

Jade stared out the open hanger door and sighed as she watched the rain come down hard as it had the past three days since she’d woken up. Bee had told her that rain was aggravating to their bodies so they shouldn’t go out. When she had asked him if he had ever gone in the rain he said that Ratchet had told him not to. Yep, he was still young enough to still follow orders. Trapmaster, Carbonation, and Cheatcode were bored so they sat with her pouting. Chatter, Screenshot, and Dial were chirping at each other as if they were preppy girls at a mall. Shieldstriker was sitting with his back against Jade’s, Locator on his shoulder and Skymaze, Healingblade, and Labtech were drinking some of the energon that Bee was giving them. Jade had to admit that energon tasked better than oil, but she knew there was a shortage due to a lack of natural energon and limited ways of making it. She continued to drink oil, especially since she had heard Ratchet muttering about the shortage. It wasn’t eavesdropping if he was saying it out loud while walking past her.

“Bee, are you sure we can’t go out?” Jade asked getting a “yes ma’am” from him.

Pouting Jade stretched out her legs until they were straight out in front of her. A sudden splattering of cool liquid on her feet was accompanied with the soft pinging sound. Jade’s eyes snapped open to see her feet were indeed outside of the hanger. The water wasn’t really cold, just cool to the point that it was refreshing compared to the stifling heat of the hanger. And best of all it didn’t hurt.

Quickly Jade looked around the building. There were some tarps in a corner, probably left over from a project or something. Smiling she stood and grabbed the tarps. She tore up them up into large pieces and called Sky over. When he was in reach she tied the tarps over his thrusters, almost like a shower cap. She remembered Ratchet telling her that getting water in the flying children’s thrusters was quite harmful for them. Personally she related it to bugs when their wings got wet. After making sure the tarp pieces were secure she proceeded to do the same trick for Healing, Trap, and Tech.

Standing Jade placed her hands on her hips. “We’re going outside to play in the rain.”

With that she walked out of the hanger ignoring Bee’s protests. There was a moment of shock when the rain first pelted against her body, but she soon adjusted to the feeling of the little drops bursting against her metal skin. Smiling she raised her arms and closed her eyes. This was the first rain she had experienced since becoming a robot and so far she liked it.

**“Carrier!”** four voices called out to her with a chorus of chirping following.

Jade turned to see her original four kids come running out to her splashing and giggling all the way. Right after them came the cellphones, Carbonation, and Cheatcode. Shieldstricker brought up the rear with Locator firmly attached to his shoulder and dragging Bee with him. The smaller children laughed and shrieked as they splashed each other on the water logged tarmac. Jade herself laughed when she started running so she could glide over the tarmac. Then Striker, Sheildstriker’s new nickname, and Bee joined her. The three of them had races and took turns splashing the smaller ones with the spray their glides made. This was perfect, so much more fun than that stuffy hanger.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a stern voice yelled over the rain and noise the large group was causing.

Jade smiled and did a glide toward the angry looking medic who had come outside. The male sputtered as she splashed his legs when she came to a stop. With a grin she laughed at his disgruntled expression.

“We’re playing in the rain, what else would we be doing?” Jade laughed.

“Staying dry! Do you know how much damage this liquid can do to us?” Oh great, the medic was using a lecture voice.

“It’s just water! Water won’t do any damage as long as we dry off really well when we’re done which should be easy with the hanger being so unbearably hot!” Jade argued.

**“Carrier watch us!”** Sky’s voice interrupted whatever Ratchet was going to say and Jade whipped around shouting, “Mumma’s watching baby!”

While she had been distracted Bee and Striker must have shown the smaller children how to glide and now all of them were gliding in a line while holding hands. Jade smiled and clapped, then laughed as they fell down and started giggling. She could feel Ratchet’s disapproving glare drilling into the back of her head, but she didn’t care. Her and the kids were having some good old fashioned fun and there was nothing he could do to stop them. With a grin Jade ran to join her children in the fun. Now this was a great way to get over everything that had happened to her.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

There are some things in life a woman can learn to accept. Things like a broken nail, a lost love interest, and even a fatal disease. Jade was a little better than those women. She had learned to love and accept her robotic transformation and taken on her role as the mother figure for over ten children ranging from toddler to teen. She had accepted the fact that she had Ratchet constantly asking after her and the children’s health just like her human father had done. Jazz was so sweet to her, always helping her with things she needed and little projects when he had the time. Optimus humored her requests and was so easy to talk to it was almost frightening. Ironhide was a prick, but tolerable enough that she trusted him to help her practice with her weapons.

What Jade couldn’t stand, however, was tropical weather.

The hatred had started when a friend had invited her on a tropical vacation. The heat, the sun, the beaches, and all the different ways to relax were fun. Until halfway through the trip huge storms came rolling in and drenched everything. Now, growing up in New England gave Jade a good handle on fast changing and extreme weather. The tropics had taught her a very important lesson. She got bored extremely quickly.

With a sigh Jade stared out of her hanger while the children getting ready behind her. They were going to the Autobot hanger to meet Sam who was visiting. Apparently he was coming over to give his opinion of a secondary base within the U.S. that he had toured. The second base idea may have come from Jade as she had complained to Optimus that all the tropical weather was making Tech, Trap, Sky, and Healing too tired or unable to fly. She had said that, like birds, they needed all the practice they could get while they were young so that they could do it on their own when they were older.

**“Mumma, we are ready,”** Skymaze’s voice called.

Jade turned to see all of her children dressed in their ponchos. She had been bored one day and decided to use the random ropes and traps lying around to make something. It had taken a while for her fingers to remember how to sew with her makeshift needle, but eventually she had made all of them ponchos so they could go in the rain and not get wet. Jazz had thought the idea was creative and Ratchet and approved saying he wouldn’t have to give her more lectures about the dangers of rain. Optimus had chuckled when she had offered to make the rest of them ponchos, but Ironhide had shot her down saying that the rain wasn’t a big deal. Then Ratchet started lecturing the Weapons Specialist like he had Jade.

“Alright,” Jade sighed. She grabbed her poncho and pulled it on. Bringing the hood over her head the only female robot on base slowly started making her way to the meeting.

Technically they were already late. Jade had put off leaving for as long as she could, but Bumblebee had insisted that they all needed to be there to meet Sam. Seeing her cousin again after everything she had been through seemed to be like a kick in the gut to Jade. He was still human and could live a normal life while she was a robot and already a mother.

**“Are you alright, Mumma?”** Shield asked her as he walked next to her with Bumblebee by his side.

That was another development over the last year. The children born during the war had learned to talk. Jade had laughed the first time Optimus had walked in on Labtech and Healingblade teaching the technically younger children how to speak in “Cybertronian” as the Autobots called it. Funny, Jade could only understand it when the children spoke, but no one else even though Jazz had tried to help. She decided to let it go as something she would just have to live with not knowing. Besides, languages were never her strong point.

“I’m not looking forward to this meeting,” Jade sighed again.

“But it’s Sam! I haven’t seen him in so long!” Bee whined in his radio clipped style.

Jade sent the yellow robot an incredulous look, “You saw him just last week. You’ve been going to see him every other week. With the way you talk about him so much I’m convinced you have a crush on him.”

Bee sputtered and denied with various movie quotes. It had become a common theme to tease the oldest of the children about his slight obsession with Sam. Jade swore up and down and every other possible way that he had a crush on the human. He acted just like she did if there was a guy she liked when she was human. Her teasing was normally followed by-

**“Bee and Sam sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes-“** Trapmaster, Dial, Chatter, and Screenshot started to sing and giggle as they ran ahead, but still keeping close to the group. Sometimes Jade wondered if it was a good idea to let them learn that song, but then she remembers that Bee used it on her first when her and Jazz were talking once.

**“It will be alright, Mumma,”** Healingblade tried to console her from her perch on the woman’s shoulder next to Skymaze who patted her neck in a comforting way.

“So says everyone I talk to. I just don’t know if I want him to know who I am.” That was her problem. She wasn’t sure how Sam would react to her and she really didn’t want him to know she was his cousin.

They were finally at the door and Jade had run out of stalling time. Well she really didn’t get the chance to stall, Bee had thrown open the door and rushed inside with the other children expect for Healing, Sky, Locator, and Cheatcode who had been riding on her shoulders. Taking a deep breath Jade entered the hanger. She apologized to Optimus about their lateness and rude entrance but he just waved it off. Ironhide scowled and said she needed to learn punctuality, but she reminded both him and Ratchet that he still hadn’t gone to his check up. Rather reluctantly Jade set her four passengers on the floor and watched them rush over to the group surrounding a small human male. He was pale, with brown hair, and brown eyes with a wide smile on his face as he greeted each of the children; not seeming to mind when Cheatcode tugged on his clothes to get attention.

There he was. Samuel Witwicky in the flesh.

With a soft sigh Jade pushed her hood down off her head. Sam’s eyes turned towards her at the sound of her sigh. He seemed to freeze and stare at her, almost like he was in awe. Bee had been introducing each of the children and finally he introduced Jade. He stared into her blue eyes with his brown.

“Hi, I’m Sam Witwicky. Can I ask you something?” Well this wasn’t what she thought would happen. With a nod she signaled him to continue. “What would you do if I painted you pink?”

Jade glared, he so knew it was her. “I’d say I’d squish you like a bug and enjoy every minute of it, but if I was human I would kill you creatively after torturing you and then dance on your grave, Sammy.”

Sam blinked then did the most predictable thing ever. “What happened to you, Jade? How did this happen? Did you guys know she’s my cousin? She’s supposed to be human!” Yep, classic Witwicky freak out.

Sighing Jade waved her hand at Optimus and Bee to tell him the story. Jade in the mean time sat down with the children and started teaching them how to play telephone, the title making the cellphone sisters giggle. By the time Sam was done being filled in it was determined that Dial, Screenshot, and Chatter were the best at the game and Cheatcode liked to mess the phrase up on purpose. The feel of a small warm body hugging, or trying to hug, her hip called Jade’s attention away from the game. Sam was trying to hug her around the waist, which was impossible with her being about fourteen feet tall if her calculations were right, he seemed to be trying to not cry. Sighing, she carefully picked him up and sat him in her left hand.

“You going to start crying like Ron when his football team loses?” she asked with a raised metal eyebrow.

“I’m relieved you jerk. We all thought you were dead. There was a funeral and everything just after the city attack,” he sniffled.

Jade felt a part of her heart crack at the thought of her own funeral. “Well I can promise I’m not a zombie even though Ratchet kept me alive somehow. See, no decaying flesh anywhere.” It was a poor joke and in bad taste, but it got her cousin to laugh.

“You’d make an ugly zombie.”

“Hey, I think I’d be attractive enough!”

“Yeah right, you’d scare all the other zombies away.”

“Then I’ll just make them chase you.” The two of them laughed at their own stupid conversation.

**“Mumma, can we play with Uncle Sammy?”** To hear Locator of all the children ask that and then for her to translate to her cousin was priceless. His face at him being an uncle of any kind was just too hilarious to not laugh at. She set him back on the ground and nudged him toward the kids.

“Go on LadiesMan. You’ll need to learn how to deal with kids sooner or later.” She smirked at his groan while Carbonation, who was as tall as Sam, dragged him over to play.

“Why will no one let that go?’

“Because it is completely false,” Jade smiled at him. It didn’t go like she thought it would, but now she had her cousin back in her life. Idly she wondered when they would fight again since they never lasted more than two hours without fighting.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

* * *

After hunting for about an hour Jade finally pounced on her prey. They gave a startled squawk as they fell forward, Jade following right after. With a laugh the two began to wrestle until the prey was pinned. Jade held their wrists with her hands and sat on their stomach, her legs forcing her prey’s to the ground.

“I told you I would win,” Jade laughed as she panted slightly.

“Yeah I guess ya did.” Jazz smiled up at her with his big grin, “Now ya can le’ me up.”

With a pout Jade stood and held a hand out to the silver male. He grabbed hold of her offered hand letting her help pull him upright. With a laugh he playfully shoved her and ran out of the hanger he had been hiding in.

“Round eight, little lady!” he called as he ran. With a grin Jade dashed after him.

The children were napping under the watchful eye of their big brother Bee so that Jade could have some down time. That down time turned into Jade being so bored that she had been lying on the tarmac watching the clouds as if the white puffy things held all the answers to the universe within them. Jazz had found her like that and leaned over her so that she was staring at his upside down face, from her angle anyway. He had grinned at her and asked her to help him with his stealth. That was how they ended up playing a game of Jazz hide and Jade seek. It was fun when she got to pounce on him once she found him, though she had a feeling that he was going easy on her.

With a roar the woman launched herself and tackled the fleeing silver Autobot. They crashed to the ground laughing the entire time. They wrestled again and for the ninth time since they started Jade pinned the music loving male to the ground. Grinning, she laughed as he tried to move her, but failed.

“Give up Jazz, you can’t beat me.” Jade smirked down at him.

The world suddenly spun and Jade found herself with her back to the ground. She blinked up at the blue visor that was mere inches from her face.

“Wha’ was tha’ Little Lady?” Jazz’s accented voice drifted over he like a gentle breeze. They stared at each other in silence.

**“Mumma! Mumma!”**

So quickly that he seemed to momentarily disappear, Jazz rolled off of Jade and leaned back so he looked like he was just lounging. Jade pushed herself up and looked at Cheatcode and the cell triplets running toward her.

“What’s up girls?” Jade asked once they were next to her.

**“We heard a word and no one will tell us what it means,”** Cheatcode whined. If there was one thing the gaming system disliked it was not having access to information.

“And what word is that?”

**“What does ‘frag’ mean?”** Chatter asked in her hyperactive, high pitched voice.

Jade felt her left eye twitch and Jazz tense beside her. Though Jade herself could be very oblivious to things that happened around her, the woman was definitely _not_ unaware of the swears on the base. She had personally threatened every living being on the base with bodily harm if they taught any of the children swears. She had even gently warned Bee about swearing and he had become a big help with preventing the younger ones from learning such words. Jazz had even been there when she threatened Optimus!

Someone hadn’t listened to her.

“Sweethearts,” Jade smiled sweetly, “that’s a bad word. Promise me you won’t use that word okay?” The four gave very comical looks of shock and nodded furiously. “Now before you go back to the others, I want you to tell me where you heard that word.”

**“Ratchet said it!”** Screenshot squeaked out.

**“He was talking, but no one was there.”** Dial calmly explained, she was the calmest out of the three.

“Thank you.” Jade petted each of them on the head and let them run off. As soon as they were out of sight she stood. “Time for a visit to the good doctor.”

 

Jazz warily watched Jade stride in a casual manner in front of him. The way she moved almost silently like she was stalking some poor unfortunate prey made him think she had more skills than he originally thought. The fact that she was hunting made that thought extremely frightening. The sun shown off her battered paint job that Jazz was unsure as to whether or not she knew how bad it was or just didn’t care. Not that it mattered to him how she looked, she was pretty without being all perfectly painted.

She slowed to a stop right outside of Ratchet’s medbay. There was a part of Jazz that wanted to stop her since Ratchet could be extremely frightening when he wanted to be, which was most of the time. Then again Jade was scary in her own right, what with the way she acted like the calm before the storm. Truly he had never met a more dangerous femme than Jade.

In all honesty he liked the spice that she added to his life.

Said femme stood poised in front of the medbay doors seeming ready to strike like a king cobra or some other really dangerous creature. Calmly she opened the door and stepped inside. No wrench came flying out the door so Jazz stuck his head around the corner. Ratchet was muttering to himself again, unaware that he had an audience, hunched over his workbench. He seemed to be tinkering with something only for it to shock him. He snarled out several Cybertronian swears including the one the four sparklings had asked about, and most of them damning Wheeljack.

“Didn’t I tell you to not talk to yourself, Ratchet,” Jade spoke. Said medic jumped, his project flying into the air and landing on the floor to shatter into a million parts and pieces. Ratchet swore again earning a glare from Jade. “Watch your language,” she scolded.

The medic waved a wrench at her in warning. Where did he get that from? He was empty handed just an astrosecond ago! “Don’t you go telling me what to do, Femme.”

If Jade had fur it would probably be standing on end by now. “I get the right when it concerns my children,” she growled.

“What does this have to do with them?”

“Interestingly enough; Cheatcode, Dial, Screenshot, and Chatter asked me what a word meant. A word they learned from you.” She strode up to the mech and got in his face plates. “Just guess what word they wanted to know about.”

“Just tell me what you want before I throw you out of my medbay with some new dents,” the medic snarled.

“Does the term ‘frag’ sound familiar?” Jade’s entire demeanor turned savage. “They heard it from you during one of your monologues. I told you to watch it with the language.”

The medic blinked then froze as the information sunk into his processor. He seemed about to apologize when Carbonation came in swearing like a human sailor in Cybertronian. All three adults froze before seeing Ironhide skidding after him telling him to knock it off. Wrenches made dents in the black mech’s helm. Jade followed after his retreating form, claws ready to tear and Ratchet ready with more wrenches. Seriously how many did he have and where was he getting them from?

**“Why’d they go after ‘Hide?”** the four armed sparkling questioned the only adult left.

With a sigh Jazz picked up the green soda machine and went about explaining what bad words were and why they shouldn’t be used. Then he had to explain in a child friendly way why Jade and Ratchet were trying to kill Ironhide. That last part was harder than it sounds.


	21. Chapter 21

* * *

It was decided that for the children’s health and safety that the base Jade had hidden in when she first escaped Project M would be bulldozed down and rebuilt. Well, part of that was true, the children were showing signs of extreme cabin fever and the original four had been seriously neglected in terms of their flying lessons. There was only so much height within a hanger. The part that was not put on record was that Jade was becoming vicious in her protection of the children. She had attacked Ironhide several times, even landing him in Ratchet’s medbay a few times. Optimus had been on the wrong side of her ire when she discovered that Bumblebee had been sent off to chase after Barricade and came back with large gouges in his armor and a few nicked energon lines. She had also taken to growling at any soldier that got too close to the children after a group of soldiers that fully supported Galloway had decided it would be fun to use Carbonation and Cheatcode for target practice. So it was for everyone’s safety that the base was redone and Jade and the children lived there with Bumblebee until the rest of the base could be moved.

Galloway was another new development that actually pushed for the completion of the second base. Apparently the man was supposed to help with relations between the Autobots and the U.S. His first meeting with Jade however was of him barging into her hanger and demanding to have “possession” over the “technology” she had. That had translated to the children which in turn had Jade threatening the man. Said threats lead to Jazz keeping her company and teaching the children about music, both Earth and Cybertronian. Personally Jade liked her country music and was overjoyed when the silver male had played some of the newest hits and then taught her how to access all she wanted. Cybertronian music entranced her though. It was a series of clicks, whirls, and chirps that somehow sounded almost mystical when played. Jazz refused to sing, saying he was bad at it though Jade felt he was just being shy.

With a grin Jade drove off the plane ramp with Bee and Shield right behind her, the smaller children split between the three of them. She opened her doors to let Tech, Healing, Trap, and Sky out before transforming, the others following her example as they did for everything else.

The base looked good. It was still dry and desert like, but gone were the crippled buildings that looked to be on their last legs. Nice new buildings with a dull grey color to them stood nice and tall, tall enough for even Optimus to stand comfortably inside. The kids went running with squeals of delight as Jade quietly ambled her way around the various buildings. There was a main building that had a mess hall, meeting rooms, a medbay, and even several large rooms that looked to be bedrooms for Cybertronians. Exiting that building Jade found the cell sisters and Cheatcode exploring the human barracks if the excited chatter from deep within the echoing halls was anything to go by. With no need to go in there she continued to take stock of the rest of the base. The fence was redone and nice and high, though not high enough that she couldn’t jump over. There were guard towers, a rather large one which she guessed a Cybertronian may fit into, and several other smaller buildings that were probably for human use. There was one hanger that was large and off to the side which Jade peeked inside. Seeing a duplicate of the play room from Diego Garcia made the woman smile at the attention to detail since there were windows and two exits.

**“Jade,”** Bee’s voice called her attention.

Turning around she found him anxiously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Instantly she knew what he wanted to tell her. With a smirk she put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Go see Sammy, I’m sure your little boyfriend will be happy for the surprise visit.”

The yellow teenager sputtered and the woman was sure that if he was human that he would be bright red. He turned tail and ran through the open gate, Autobot friendly humans and Shield and Locator laughing as he transformed and drove away probably breaking several speeding laws as he went. Satisfied with her thorough embarrassment of her oldest child Jade happily went looking for her winged kids. It was time to start their flying lessons in earnest now.

It took awhile to find the four since Trap and Carbonation were trying to find hiding places, Tech was trying to look around for something to experiment with, Healing was trying to understand the human sized medical equipment, and Sky seemed to be trying to figure out where the energon was so they could have some later. She did round them all up though, the prospect of flying lessons dragging them away from their individual pursuits. The four of them tired out after almost three hours of nonstop practice, but the four were overjoyed that they could hover in the air for at least a minute before falling back down into their mother’s hands.

After that Jade had gathered the rest of the children in the mess hall and figured out how to get the energon. She gave it to them and then snagged an oil barrel for herself. There was even less energon on this base than there was on the island so Jade absolutely refused to drink any. The children needed it more.

Two distinct sounds reached her ears causing her to tense. One was tires on the road that should have been disguised so no one would turndown it unless they knew about it. The other sound was that of a jet’s engines that sounded horribly familiar to her. Huffing in annoyance Jade told the children to stay in the mess hall as she sped out the door. As she got outside she saw what she wished was a hallucination.

The police car rolled through the still open gate, lazy humans, and transformed into the hazily familiar form of the male Jade thought was named Barricade. A jet passed over her head and turned into the unfortunately familiar shape of Starscream. The humans started yelling and grabbing their guns to shoot. She should have let them do their jobs, but Jade ordered them to stand down. Luckily they did, though they looked at her like she was insane as she carefully stepped over and passed them toward the threatening duo.

“What are you doing here?” she growled, letting all of her ire at the two show.

“I don’t know about Screamer here, but I thought I’d drop by and see if you were safe and well. I couldn’t find the Autobot base so imagine my surprise when you came up on my scanners,” Barricade rattled off while holding his hands up in surrender.

“You were not at the cave when I returned, where were you?” Starscream demanded earning himself a vicious snarl from the woman.

“For your information, I was attacked so I had to leave which resulted in me meeting Barricade. Now give me one good reason why I should let you live,” she snapped.

“I can teach the sparklings to fly.” The damn winged idiot had a point.

“I hate you,” Jade groused only to receive a smirk.

“So, how are things? The sparklings doing good?” Barricade’s voice sounded, somehow easing the tension that hung in the air.

Jade crossed her arms over her chest. At least Barricade wasn’t an idiot like Starscream or Ironhide. He seemed to act mature, like he was in his late twenties or something and was out working for a living. He might be a decent role model for some of the children.

“Your paint looks ever worse than when I last saw you, Femme.”

There was no verbal response, but there was a cannon blast followed by a shrill shriek that had many cringing, but Jade and Barricade smirking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.
> 
> Key:  
> Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold


End file.
